The dramatic fall of Albert Schultz p. 66 Andrea Horwath on her big new job P. 26 The supersonic Andre De Grasse p. 76 How psychedelics cured my anxiety P. 116
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Architect John Stark bought this private island in Georgian Bay and built his dream cottage on it, p. 87
august 2018 | vol. 52 no. 8
the conversation 18 | What you loved and loathed last month
photograph by derek shapton
editor’s letter 22 | Soulpepper’s tarnished legacy this city 25 | The Moment The war on the street 26 | Q&A Andrea Horwath on parenting, dating and dealing with Ford 2.0 28 | Ego Meter What’s making and shaking the city’s self-image 30 | Camera The month’s best parties 34 | Cost of Living What Torontonians make and how they spend it 36 | The Audit A penny-bypenny reckoning of the month in money 38 | The Upstart Torontonians who are shaking up the tech sector 40 | Urban Diplomat Advice on how to be a civilized Torontonian
features
43 | Best of the City Our unabashedly opinionated guide to food, drink, fashion and fun includes a secret absinthe bar, swimming with sharks, a gourmet pineapple sundae, the ultimate picnic basket, designer pot paraphernalia, and tons more cool stuff to max out your summer 66 | Downfall At Soulpepper, Albert Schultz was a suave impresario who could charm millions out of wealthy donors. Behind the scenes, his employees claim he was a serial sexual harasser. The inside story of his dramatic collapse By Leah McLaren 76 | Born to Run Andre De Grasse wanted to be a basketball player. Or an HVAC installer. Or a mechanic. Anything but a runner. And yet somehow, the skinny kid from Markham is on the brink of becoming the fastest man on earth By Malcolm Johnston
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navigator 87 | Great Spaces A glass house on a private island in Georgian Bay 90 | The Chase One family’s hunt for a $250,000 cottage food & drink 93 | Primer Twenty great new places to hoist a pint in Toronto 102 | Where to Eat Now Mediterranean dining at Constantine, seasonal farmto-table at City Betty, and Italian for grown-ups at Giulietta culture 107 | The top things to see and do this month, including the inimitable David Byrne at the Sony Centre, Sail-in Cinema at Sugar Beach and a riproaring, artery-busting CNE 116 | memoir When therapy failed to cure my crippling anxiety, I turned to psychedelics By Sulaiman Hakemy
August 2018 toronto life 11
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Are you paying too much tax? “Before meeting Michael I was paying too much in tax. Michael used his special knowledge and experience as an investment advisor with a tax legal background to arrange my portfolio so that I paid much less tax and kept more in my pocket. Thank you Michael for all of your help.” – Gary Teicht Most investors worry about the total return on their retirement portfolio. But the biggest cost of a portfolio is usually the tax bill. In fact, at the highest tax bracket, every tax dollar you save is equivalent to more than two dollars earned by you. That’s why you should contact Michael and his team today at 416 308 9084 or Michael.Marcovitz@td.com to see whether you qualify for a free, no obligation tax smart-evaluation of your retirement plan.
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the conversation
Big Heroes in the 6 Reaction to our June cover story, which recounted the aftermath of the van attack at Yonge and Finch through the voices of people who were there that day, included such heartfelt sentiments as “Tears in my eyes,” “Proud to be a Torontonian,” “You are my Toronto” and… “Thanks for profiling ‘ordinary’ people who turned out to be extraordinary. The combination of all their stories moved me to tears and demonstrated what our Toronto community is all about.” —Earl Silver, Toronto “After the van attack at Yonge and Finch happened, we all wondered, ‘Why?’ As I write this a month later, we are still wondering. And no matter what the accused says in the future, the attack will never make sense. I did feel real comfort, however, when I read your cover feature. The short, first-person stories provided a much-needed salve to wounds we have all experienced. It did me a lot of good to know there are such brave and kindhearted people in the world.” —Paul Fraumeni, Toronto “ ‘The Faces of Yonge & Finch’ is balm for the trauma of April’s events. It is a poignant and deeply moving testament to the power of the human spirit, the selfless 18 toronto life August 2018
helpers, and what truly unites us as a human family. Thank you.” —@MariaVamvalis, Twitter “Heartwarming and beautiful to see this community come together. Loved reading the stories and the big and small things people can do in times of crisis.” —Ruby Tuesday, Facebook
I Love Lucy Anais Granofsky’s memoir about growing up on both sides of the tracks— in subsidized housing with her single mom one week, in a Bridle Path mansion with her wealthy grandparents the next—generated a vast outpouring. Some readers were initially drawn in by the Degrassi connection (Granofsky played Lucy Fernandez on the original Degrassi Junior High), others had never seen the show, but all were blown away by her story. “We had just received the new Toronto Life when my husband grabbed it first, as usual, and began reading. As I sat beside him
on the couch I saw him wiping a tear away and commenting, ‘That was a really good story’ (and he is not one to cry easily). He was referring to Anais Granofsky’s memoir. What a beautifully written and touching account of her childhood and the love she has for her family. I admit I, too, welled up at the end.” —T. B., Toronto “A remarkable story beautifully told. Life is so wondrous, rich and brimming with possibilities. Thank you, Anais Granofsky, for sharing details of your unique journey. After reading, I have this curious compulsion to hug each character on the branches of your family tree.” —David Stones, Toronto “Thank you, Anais Granofsky, for sharing your life experiences with us and in doing so, teaching us that our differences are to be shared, understood and celebrated. We need a little more of this in today’s world.” —Susan Webb, Uxbridge “Anais is the reason tissue didn’t last long in my household.” —Mr. Cool Ice, torontolife.com “What a fascinating story and incredibly well written. I remember her from Degrassi but never knew
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The ConversaTion
A BLOCK PARTY 60 YEARS IN THE MAKING 08.25
this history and what a life story, really enjoyed reading it!” —Kristi Hall, Facebook “This was incredibly touching. Truly special to come out of these things without anger, focusing primarily on the good in each strange and confusing part of life.” —Jacquelyn Cyr, Facebook Perhaps the off-the-charts readership owed something to the quasi-celebrity retweets: “This was an engaging read that made my flight home breeze by and had me reflecting on my own extended family. I always loved Lucy on #Degrassi and I was delighted to read about Anais’s American/Canadian origins. This is worth your time!” —@ThatKevinSmith, Twitter “I knew Anais back in the day, and her mom was such a lovely lady, proud and supportive. I’m happy to see that this incredible story is being told. I wish Anais nothing but the best, and I’m excited for her to be able to tell this incredible story.” —@patmastroianni, Twitter “Must read, Toronto. Also for anyone living in between.” —@cameron_tiff, Twitter “Highly recommended reading from Anais Granofsky in @torontolife!” —@EdtheSock, Twitter And the New York Times shoutout didn’t hurt:
60 years after the Gardiner opened to cars, The Bentway opens to the public. Come rock with us under the Gardiner at Toronto’s biggest Block Party, 60 years in the making. Saturday, August 25th. 20 toronto life August 2018 thebentway.ca
Canada, cultural Judaism and the teachings of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.” —Margaret Lyons, New York Times TV critic
“I’m a mega Degrassi devotee, and my fandom includes not only the show’s modern incarnations but also its original low-budget versions from the early 1980s. This week I came across this beautiful, thoughtful autobiographical article by Anais Granofsky, who played Lucy Fernandez on Degrassi High. Not to be Stefon, but this article has everything: a biracial girl navigating class conflict in 1970s
Silenced Partner Readers were horrified not just by the crimes of Peizheng Qiu—the house flipper who murdered his business partner and methodically dismembered his body—but also by what many considered the relatively lenient punishment he received. “Eligible for parole after 14 years! Seriously?” —Rhamy Abdel Hamid, Facebook “A man was murdered savagely and no thought for him? Qiu was never a man, he was a boy who was spoiled and too stupid to know when in over his head. If he were a man he would have paid his debt and not killed. He should get life, not 14 years. RIP Bertram. I am sorry this happened to you.” —stella.marie, torontolife.com “Reads surprisingly similar to the Crossbow Killer case or that girl who took a hit out on her parents: people trying to fly high and getting swatted down, turning to murder. Just sad.” —Magjee, Reddit
Oops! In our Real Estate SIP, we listed CentreCourt as the developer of the Transit City condo tower. It is, in fact, a joint venture with SmartCentres. Our apologies for the omission. Please email your comments to letters@torontolife.com, or mail them to Letters, Toronto Life, 111 Queen St. E., Ste. 320, Toronto, Ont. M5C 1S2. All comments may be edited for accuracy, length and clarity.
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EDITOR’S LETTER High Drama
Though Schultz wasn’t yet famous, somehow I was starstruck. He charmed me that afternoon, as he charmed so many people, onstage and off, in the years that followed. His personality was magnetic and confident. Socially, he was as lively and compelling as he was in the theatre. He made everyone around him feel special and important. Over the years, I’d see him at some of the city’s glitziest social events, enthusiastically back-slapping and airkissing his way around the room. Soulpepper, the theatre company he founded in 1998 with his wife at the time, Susan Coyne, and several other actors, was immediately embraced and lauded by the city. And with good reason: it consistently put on smart, sophisticated shows that breathed freshness and vitality into complicated literary classics. And while many actors and directors contributed to Soulpepper’s success, the company was propelled forward largely by Schultz’s energy and ego. He was its artistic director, chief fundraiser, frequent headliner and most evangelical promoter. The strength of his personality was so dominant, his charisma so effective and his success—particularly in the fiscally challenged world of theatre—so dazzling that his authority was rarely questioned. That is, until last January, when four former Soulpepper performers filed civil lawsuits alleging that they experienced unwanted groping, harassment and sexual remarks from Schultz. He vowed to defend himself vehemently, then quickly resigned, and so did the executive director, Leslie Lester, his second wife. 22 toronto life August 2018
There was some excellent reporting on the case when the four actors went public with their accusations—in the Globe and Mail and on the CBC, in particular. And I watched every second of the accusers’ live-streamed press conference. But I never fully understood what happened or how. What led to the dramatic accusations? And why did they come out now? We asked Leah McLaren to find out. Over the last several years, Leah has written some fantastic, deeply reported features for Toronto Life. She approaches each subject with neither fear nor favour, just an intense curiosity about how people behave and why. The results speak for themselves. Her most recent story for the magazine was about the suicide of the Toronto Star reporter Raveena Aulakh, who had been having an affair with a married senior staffer at the paper. And before that, Leah wrote a cover story about the aftermath of the Jian Ghomeshi scandal. Her piece in this issue about Schultz (“Downfall,” page 66) is the most comprehensive, authoritative and revealing account of the saga you’ll read—full of telling details and behind-the-scenes information. It’s a sad, sordid story, a very big mess, with lots of pain and no winners—the kind of drama, in other words, that no theatre company ever wants.
—Sarah Fulford Email: editor@torontolife.com Twitter: @sarah_ fulford
Coming up The inside story of a mild-mannered Bay Street accountant accused of embezzling millions from his clients; and the weird but wealthy world of cryptocurrency miners; plus, the city’s best new burgers, ranked. Stay in touch Sign up for our weekly newsletters at torontolife.com/newsletters The Hunt: The latest on the crazy real estate market Best Bets: Your cheat sheet to Toronto’s best events The Informer: Our roundup of the week’s top stories The Dish: The scoop on the hottest restaurants, bars and food shops The Goods: The city’s fashion trends, shop openings and more
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I first saw Albert Schultz perform in the summer of 1987, when I was in middle school. My grandmother had taken me to a matinée of Romeo and Juliet staged by Stratford’s Young Company, a group of talented emerging actors. Schultz was in his early 20s and played an impassioned, convincing Romeo. Even back then, I knew something special was happening in that performance. Shakespeare, in the wrong hands, can sound alien and pretentious, but the actors spoke their lines with simplicity and clarity.
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“Mr. Ford and I don’t have a relationship. I don’t know if we will”
Ego Meter ......... p. 28 Camera ............ p. 30 Cost of Living.... p. 34 The Audit ......... p. 36 The Upstart....... p. 38 The Urban Diplomat ........ p. 40
—Andrea Horwath, p. 26
the moment
Dalia Lucia Chako photograph by getty images
1959–2018
She was a 58-year-old grandmother and retired piano teacher who was born in Windsor, lived in New York City and Miami, and moved to the Annex two years ago. On June 12, she was headed along Bloor Street on her beloved bicycle—black, with yellow rims and a pink bell. As she passed through the lights at St. George Street, a flatbed truck struck and killed her. Bouquets soon appeared at the crash site, and two days later, 200-plus cyclists and mourners staged a memorial. It was only June, and already three cyclists and 18 pedestrians had been killed on city streets. Their deaths were a stark reminder that in a city built for cars but increasingly populated by cyclists, bad planning can have tragic consequences.
August 2018 toronto life 25
Q&A
portends divorce any more than other high-profile, high-pressure occupations.
The Comeback Kid
Do you have a partner now? I’m seeing someone, but it’s new. The person I turn to most for support is my son, Julian. He gives good advice.
by m a l colm johnston
He’s an aspiring rapper and a former dispensary employee. Was it a problem for you that he sold pot pre-legalization? I wasn’t thrilled by the news but not shocked either. He has had a prescription for cannabis for some time.
In the election, you nearly doubled your seats. On the other hand, you’re not premier. Do you see it as a win or a loss? It’s a bit of both. Not being able to implement our ideas is disappointing, but we will be a strong opposition to Mr. Ford. We’ll remind him that 60 per cent of voters didn’t choose him, or the public service reductions, layoffs and corporate tax cuts he represents. Ideologically speaking, Ford is much further from you than Wynne was. Which would you rather have as premier? I truly couldn’t decide. That’s a choice between two negatives. I voted for me. Was sexism a factor in Ms. Wynne’s extreme unpopularity? I don’t think so. She was elected as premier once before. It was her time to go. Have you encountered sexism in this job? Oh, always. Everywhere. Just recently, a Liberal MPP walked up to the front of the legislature, looked me in the eye and said “My, you’re looking lovely today.” What that had to do with the price of eggs, I have no idea. A slew of new female NDP candidates were elected this time. What’s your advice to them regarding sexism? That it will happen, and when it does, don’t stand for it. Call it out. Name it. You’ve said some harsh things about Doug Ford. Now you have to work with him. What’s your relationship like? We don’t have one. Frankly, I don’t know if we will. He hasn’t invited you to the family barbecue? No. Doug and I don’t run in the same circles. I am somebody who actually runs in everyday family circles, with 26 toronto life August 2018
everyday people. I don’t have a business in Chicago and fly there every other weekend.
There were dark days for you in 2014, after you prompted the election and Wynne swept her way to a majority. How close were you to resigning as leader? I don’t give up easily. It was a disappointing time, but I emerged with the sense that people were ready to give me a second chance. Employment-wise, you’d been in tough spots before. Hardest jobs: go. Oh, where to start. Picking fruit, working in an industrial dry cleaner, waitressing at a mall. I was a shortorder cook at a golf course and a cocktail waitress in Hamilton. That last one was where you met Ben, a musician moonlighting as a DJ. That’s right. It was the ’80s, so he was spinning a mix of disco and some newer stuff. Your common-law relationship ended in late 2009, just after you were elected leader. Is it fair to say the two were related? No, it had been rocky for a while. I don’t think a life in politics
How often do you see him? Every time I’m home in Hamilton. He still lives with me in my condo there. He’s picked up a couple of parttime jobs, but they don’t seem to mix well with his music career. I told him I’d support him a bit longer, but, you know, he’s 25. I sense a talk coming. Oh, we’ve had it. He knows he’s on his last push. What’s the best perk of being Opposition leader? The new office will be nice. Back when I became leader of the NDP, I went to the government art holdings to find some paintings to put on the walls. It turned out that Kathleen Wynne had already gone in and plucked most of the ones I wanted. So maybe this time I’ll be able to go in and get some art that I like— mostly Canadian artists. So there could have been a beautiful friendship there, but she stole your art? Haha. Exactly. Go figure. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
photograph by erin leydon
NDP boss Andrea Horwath has spent her career in third place. Now, as Opposition leader with a PC majority, she’s a check on power for Ford 2.0, which could be a wild ride
WHERE THE WORLD COMES TO
JULY 20-22
ONE EXCEPTIONAL WEEKEND I 63 winemakers I 10 countries I 165 wines I 20+ events Look for Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc and Gamay at select events.
Ego Meter ego
boost
In the wake of Trump’s “idiotic behaviour,” #ThanksCanada trends as Tweeters south of the border salute Drake, SCTV, ketchup chips and other Canuck staples.
What’s making and shaking the city’s self-image Scarborough’s Domee Shi, the first female director of a Pixar short, releases Bao— a film about a ChineseCanadian empty nester who gets another chance at motherhood when one of her steamed dumplings comes to life.
Alo squeaks onto the World’s Best Restaurants list at number 94—the first time a Canadian kitchen has landed a spot since Montreal’s Joe Beef in 2015. Drake gets the whole Degrassi gang back together for his new “I’m Upset” video—except for Ryan Cooley (a.k.a. J. T.), who thought the invite was a scam. The world’s largest Banksy exhibit makes its North American debut in Toronto...
Robert De Niro visits Toronto to break ground on the Nobu condo-hotel development and apologizes for “the idiotic behaviour of my president.”
END
Canada, Mexico and the U.S. win a joint bid to host the FIFA World Cup in 2026. The city’s non-footie fans have eight years to plan vacations far away from BMO Field.
START
DeMar DeRozan becomes the second Raptor to win the NBA’s Magic Johnson Award for his mad skills (the first was Chris Bosh in 2010).
A few days before the Canadian Grand Prix, Ferrari confuses Toronto’s skyline for Montreal in a video posted to social media. Twitter goes wild. This woman repeatedly smashes a barbell onto a treadmill at a Liberty Village GoodLife after staff tell her she needs a membership to work out. A video of the tantrum goes viral (of course).
ego
bruise
...just in time for the artist’s “Trolley Hunters” print—worth $45K—to be stolen.
Toronto is deemed the fifth-most unaffordable housing market in the world, behind London, L.A., Sydney and Hong Kong. According to one Bloomberg article, Toronto makes New York look cheap.
After a slew of pedestrian and cyclist fatalities (93 in the past two years), former chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat calls for the city to declare a state of emergency.
it happened last month: a loose chronology
28 toronto life August 2018
Former Jays third baseman Kelly Gruber is pulled from a Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame event after allegedly showing up drunk and disorderly to a Pitch Talks panel.
photographs: derozan, de niro, keesmaat, gruber by getty images; alo by dave gillespie; ball by istock
+ -
For the Exhilaration. 570S Spider
Toronto Global Retailer of the Year
2017
Sports Series
McLaren Toronto 33 Auto Park Circle Woodbridge, ON L4L 8R1
mclarentoronto.com
Official fuel consumption figures in UK mpg (l/100km) for the McLaren 570S (3,799 (cc) petrol, 7-speed Seamless Shift dual clutch Gearbox (SSG): urban 17.2 (16.5), extra urban 38.4 (7.4), combined 26.6 (10.7). Official combined CO2 emissions: 249g/km. The efficiency figures quoted are derived from official NEDC test results, are provided for comparability purposes only, and might not reflect actual driving experience.
Camera
The month’s best parties Guests dined and danced onstage
Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton, gala co-chair Jen Lee Koss and ballet goddess Karen Kain
Mad Hot Ballet 2018
June 13, Four Seasons Centre
Developer dream team Michael Cooper and Krystal Koo
Pirouettes and grand jetés were substituted for dad-approved dance moves at the National Ballet’s discothemed fundraising gala. Among the sequin-wearing partygoers was former first daughter Chelsea Clinton, who attended as a guest of her long-time friend Jen Lee Koss, the gala’s co-chair. While on any other given day the stage is reserved for performers, on this night it was transformed into a dance floor following a dinner prepared by celebrity chef Mark McEwan. All told, the $1,500-a-plate dinner raised $1.3 million in support of the city’s ballet community.
Film industry promoter-inchief Zaib Shaikh and tech titan Kirstine Stewart
Gala co-chair Nicholas Mellamphy The National Ballet’s dancers
30 toronto life August 2018
National Ballet super-patron Ivan Fecan Fashionista Nikki Wirthensohn Yassemi and daughter Zoe Mitra
photographs by george pimentel photography
The National Ballet’s artist-inresidence Rex Harrington
AGO CEO and dancing machine Stephan Jost
S IN INUKTITUT, THAT’S WHAT TUNIRRUSIANGIT MEANS. Experience the gift of a unique perspective at the largest exhibition of Inuit art ever at the AGO.
TUNIRRUSIANGIT: KENOJUAK ASHEVAK AND TIM PITSIULAK JUN 16 - AUG 12 | VISIT AGO.CA LEAD SPONSOR
GENEROUSLY SUPPORTED BY GORING FAMILY FOUNDATION THE WILLMOTT BRUCE HUNTER FOUNDATION JACKMAN FOUNDATION HEATHER M. & RICHARD M. THOMSON
LEAD SUPPORTER
GOVERNMENT PARTNER
ORGANIZING PARTNER
ORGANIZED BY THE ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO IN PARTNERSHIP WITH MOBILIZING INUIT CULTURAL HERITAGE, WITH THE SUPPORT OF DORSET FINE ARTS, A DIVISION OF THE WEST BAFFIN ESKIMO CO-OPERATIVE.
Kenojuak Ashevak, The Enchanted Owl (detail), 1960. Stonecut on paper, 59.7 x 65 cm. Gift of Samuel and Esther Sarick, Toronto, 2002. © Estate of Kenojuak Ashevak
PRESEnTED By
A Party Fit for a Pitmaster Hungry diners hit the Carbon Bar to feast on some of the season’s most sensational flavours
Toronto barbecue lovers flocked to the Carbon Bar in late May to enjoy some of the city’s best southern-style cooking at the Pitmaster’s Feast, presented by Toronto Life and Longo’s. To begin, guests were treated to a flurry of canapés, including Korean fried cauliflower, blistered shishito peppers, and cheddar hush puppies served with buttermilk ranch. Sharable starters included a wedge caesar with pit-smoked bacon and DIY pulled pork tacos, before the main event: chef Jonathan Viau’s signature Pitmaster Platter, which featured slow-smoked brisket, fallof f-the-bone pork ribs and crunchy buttermilk fried chicken. Sides included braised collard greens, slaw and fries. The family-style meal—paired with Italian wines by Ruffino—ended with dessert boards, including slices of banoffee pie, Basque cheesecake and vin santo (Italian dessert wine) selected by certified master of wine Eugene Mlynczyk. The event celebrated the start of barbecue season as well as the summer issue of Longo’s Experience, which features recipes from Viau.
DIy PULLED PORK TACOS
ROB KOSS, JEnny LOnGO, JOnATHAn VIAU AnD KEn HUnT
CHEDDAR HUSH PUPPIES
For Longo’s summer issue, visit longos.com/recipes/magazines.aspx For more pictures from the evening, visit torontolife.com/food/pitmaster wITH
photographs by renÉe suen
KInGFISH CEVICHE
BLISTERED SHISHITO PEPPERS
KOREAn FRIED CAULIFLOwER
wEDGE CAESAR SALAD
THE PITMASTER PLATTER
wILD ARGEnTInE SHRIMP
Cost of Living
What Torontonians make and how they spend it
RegulaR expenses
chad lizun, 35 What he Does
Ontario public servant What he makes
$72,000 a year
MiRan KiM, 31 What she Does
Psychiatric mental health nurse What she makes
$130,000 a year
Where they live
A two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo in East York
34 toronto life August 2018
mortgage $2,800 a month. ProPerty tax $3,200 a year. maintenance fees $500 a month. Home insurance $170 a month. groceries $200 a month. “We buy canned pasta like Chef Boyardee’s Beefaroni,” says Miran. “Chad’s taste buds are like a child’s.” gas $150 a month. restaurants $100 a month. miran’s cellPHone $55 a month. cHad’s cellPHone $70 a month. car lease $500 a month, on a 2017 Hyundai Tucson. tfsa $400 a month, each. miran’s rrsP $200 a month. cHad’s rrsP $250 a month. metroPass $134 a month, for Miran, who only drives sporadically.
netflix $14 a month. golf $100 a month. “I go twice a month, either at Royal Woodbine or Turtle Creek,” Chad says. cat food $35 a month, for their Russian blue, Sochi.
Recent spluRges
cruise $4,000, for a spin around the eastern Caribbean in June. “We started in Miami, then headed to Puerto Rico, St. Thomas and St. Martin,” Chad says. triP to cuba $1,900, for seven days in February. Penny stocks $12,000.“We decided to try it out just for fun,” Miran says. “I sold some of my shares and made a profit of $1,470. And now I’m up $1,870 on the shares I still own.”
photograph by erin leydon. reporting by christina gonzales
“We decided to try penny stocks for fun”
ToronTo Tomorrow Real estate, how we live and the changing city
On May 30 at the Great Hall on Queen Street West, Toronto Life partnered with Bosley Real Estate and Mizrahi Developments to present the Toronto Tomorrow real estate summit. The event featured five of the city’s most influential voices in housing, city planning and architecture, all of whom gave brief presentations in their areas of expertise. Later, the speakers joined St. Joseph Media’s Maryam Sanati for a panel discussion with questions from the audience, followed by a cocktail reception. The evening’s talk had an optimistic flavour. As developer Sam Mizrahi put it: “We are underpriced for an international city.” Explore the night’s best moments at torontolife.com/real-estate/ toronto-tomorrow
sam mizrahi, mizrahi developments
richard m. sommer, dean of the daniels faculty of architecture
alexandra daGG, airbnb canada public policy manaGer
Guela solow-ruda, arK architecture principal
realtor david fleminG
March 2016 toronto life 91
The Audit
An appraisal of the month in money
$27,500 Selling price of Prince’s rare Toronto-made Black Album, which surfaced at a Los Angeles memorabilia company. It was one of 500,000 copies the late musical icon ordered to have destroyed before its planned release in 1987.
$350,000
Amount awarded by a judge to Toronto Symphony Orchestra– appointed clarinettist Eric Abramovitz, whose girlfriend effectively stunted his musical career by hacking his email and deleting his acceptance notice to a prestigious Los Angeles music school, leading him to believe he had been rejected.
$481,250
Auction price of a forgotten Tom Thomson painting that had been given to its owner as a gag gift and was gathering dust in her basement.
$527,100
Average price of a condo in Toronto—a record high, according to the Toronto Real Estate Board, and a 10 per cent increase from last year.
$1,000,000
Estimated compensation paid to Toronto police Constable Ioan-Florin Floria over his 11 years (and counting) on suspension. He was finally convicted of four counts of professional misconduct—two for discreditable behaviour, one for insubordination and one for breach of confidence—in June and axed, but he’s appealing, so still on payroll.
$140,000,000
$6,000,000,000
Savings from unidentified “efficiency gains” promised by Doug Ford during the provincial election.
$6,080,000,000
Estimated cost of Premier Ford’s proposed transit plan, mentioned off the cuff and never broached on the campaign trail, to extend the subway line to Pickering. 36 toronto life August 2018
photographs: prince, floria by getty images
Total cost of these fancy new electric buses ordered by the TTC as part of a plan to make the city’s transit emission-free by 2040.
The Upstart Toronto’s boldest innovators on what they’re making and how it works
how iT works: “Pet owners can link up with a local vet by video so that the vet can determine if the animal’s issue requires a visit to a clinic or can be resolved at home. It’s great for the vets, as they can extend their work hours, if desired, through telemedicine.”
COMPANY HQ: liberty village fOuNded: 2016 eMPlOYees: 4
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38 toronto life August 2018
how much you spenT iniTially: “I took out a line of credit for $20,000, and then extended that to $30,000. I was able to pay that off entirely by winning pitch competitions.” your Turning poinT: “Appearing on Dragons’ Den. Almost all the Dragons were interested. On air, Michele Romanow and Arlene Dickinson did the deal together for $125,000, but ultimately it was Arlene who did the deal with us in real life, on very different terms that were much better for my company.” your big-Time backers: “We’ve raised $500,000 in funding through Arlene’s venture fund.”
eureka momenT: “My dog had a rare lung infection, and it was a challenging time for me and my fiancé, because we were commuting to Toronto for work from Burlington, and by the time we got home, the local clinics were already closed. The only online veterinarian service providers I could find were for the U.S. So I decided to bring this to Canada.”
The besT advice you’ve received:
“Be more aggressive.” The worsT advice you’ve received:
“Smile more during your presentations to be more likable.” iF you weren’T running a sTarT-up: “If money were no question, I would buy a bunch of horses and ride them all day.”
in your pasT liFe: “I tutored math for high school kids and waited tables at a restaurant in Oakville.”
Tech jargon you use Too much:
“ ‘CAC versus LTV’—customer acquisition cost versus lifetime value. In the tech business, potential clients aren’t walking into a store to buy your product. We have to spend to reach them.” Tech jargon you haTe:
“Ridiculous titles like ‘chief product evangelist.’ They’re everywhere now.”
The coolesT Thing in your oFFice: “Absolutely nothing. It’s very basic, and very affordable!”
app you can’T live wiThouT: “UberEats, because I order sushi for lunch three times a week.”
your Tech role model: “Michele Romanow. She’s professional and articulate, and she’s become her own brand, which I admire.
photographs: harris courtesy of healthy pets; horses by istock
emma harris Founder and CEO of Healthy Pets, an app that connects pet owners with vets through on-demand video chats.
SEPTEMBER 29 – FORT YORK – TORONTO A MARCH & FESTIVAL OF FOOD, FUN, MUSIC WITH & FRIENDS
GETLOUDFORSICKKIDS.CA
The ULTIMATe GUIDe TO FINDING YOUR DReAM hOMe
Urban Diplomat Last year, I started working at an office with a lively prank culture. One group of guys in particular have been waging a months-long offensive. Most of the time they target each other, but now they’re branching out. The other day, I came in to find 20 office chairs stacked in my cubicle and a big sign saying, “Congratulations on your promotion to chairman of the board!” I find it unprofessional, unfunny and a total pain (I had to unstack all those chairs). How can I get them to step back without coming off as a killjoy? —Comic Relief, Thorncliffe Park Every workplace needs a little levity, but one person’s lovable scamp can be another’s intolerable miscreant. Which is why there are unwritten rules of engagement: generally speaking, pranks that require a lot of cleanup are a no-go. If it happens again, let your manager know that this band of juvenile jokesters is playing havoc with your productivity. It’s your boss’s job to make sure the office runs smoothly and efficiently— and not like the set of Punk’d.
houses and condos for every budget across the GTA Available on newsstands and online at:
torontolife.com/realestate
40 toronto life August 2018
Dear Urban Diplomat, I love outdoor music festivals, but I could really do without some of the typical festival-goer behaviour. Last week, while I was waiting in a beer line, there was a white woman in front of me wearing a dashiki. I went to give her my shadiest glare and then, to my horror, realized I knew her! When I tried to turn it into a teachable moment, explaining why it was wrong to appropriate another culture—I mean, has she not read a single think piece?—she basically told me to bleep off and has since been badmouthing me to some of our mutual acquaintances. What do I do? —Worn Enemy, Bloordale I’m not, nor would I ever aspire to be, the cultural-appropriation police. There is far too much finger-wagging out there already. But I think we can agree that when a multinational clothing retailer mass-produces dashikis (or bindis or feathered headdresses) for
huge profits without benefit or credit to the originating (most likely marginalized) source, that’s a bad thing. What your dashiki-wearer in the beer line is guilty of is being oblivious, not racist. If she were a close friend, an amiable heads-up might have been warranted, but it sounds like a) you’re not particularly close, and b) your advice was not particularly amiable. Short answer: do nothing. And you might want to think twice about doling out citations for fashion crimes in the future.
Dear Urban Diplomat, The apartment I live in has very thin walls, and I think my neighbour went through a breakup recently, because for the past week, he’s been audibly crying and looping Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” for hours on end. I’m wavering between concern for his mental health and concern for my own! We barely know each other (we’ve maybe spoken once or twice), but should I drop in to ask if he’s okay? —Crying Out Loud, Davisville Village Everyone deserves a chance to grieve. Give the guy a few weeks to get over whatever great drama has befallen him. If his one-man musical goes longer than a month, feel free to passive-aggressively drop by and check on him. He’ll know that’s code for “Dude, we can all hear you. Time to move on or move out.” Send your questions to the Urban Diplomat at urbandiplomat@torontolife.com
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For the past year and a half or so, everyone’s been pretty cranky—on the streets, on the TTC, especially on the Internet. But we have the antidote. This year’s Best of the City package is a compendium of all things joyful: mountainous ice cream sundaes, slothful spa days, fierce drag queens, stiff yet fruity cocktails, designer pot paraphernalia, summer ice skating, and dozens of other reasons to get off Twitter and live a little.
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B y a l e x B a l d i n g e r , r e B e c c a f l e m i n g , j e a n g r a n t, e m i ly l a n d a u a n d c o u r t n e y s h e a
August 2018 toronto life 43
OF THE
TY CI
BES T
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AURA READER
Rose Aura ROSEAU R A .CA
A few years ago, Evelyn Salvarinas bought an AuraCam 6000, a special $16,000 camera equipped with two hand sensors that measure energy in various parts of the body. After five to 10 seconds of exposure, clients receive a Polaroid-like photo punctuated by clouds of colour that apparently represent their chakra levels: green signals love and forgiveness, violet indicates oneness with the world, yellow represents optimism, and so on. The science may be iffy, but it’s more fun than a mood ring, and the portraits are pretty enough to please believers and skeptics alike. $40.
44 toronto life August 2018
ba rca de
Tilt
photographs: aura by thomas van der zaag; tilt, tent courtesy of businesses
824 Dundas St. W., 416-551-8458
Toronto’s best barcade is the result of some careful bylaw bending: the city prohibits bars from having more than two arcade games, but Tilt’s owners skirted the rules by classifying the space as a club, with a $5 cover charge in exchange for unlimited access to the game collection. Which is bounteous, by the way: 200-plus vintage cabinets, rotated weekly, including treasures like Addams Family and Metallica pinball, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Street Fighter II, along with Skee-Ball and bubble hockey. There are 20 local beers on tap (we like Clifford Brewing’s on-theme Pinball Wizard pale ale) and a menu loaded with greasy CNE food: pierogies, funnel cakes, corn dogs and dillbrined fries.
townhouse that looks like Studio 54 as reimagined by David Lynch. The walls are panelled in walnut, every seat is cloaked in velvet, and the cocktails contain only the finest (and priciest) premium booze. Speaking of premium booze: there’s no Absolut on this menu. Instead, you’ll find Glenfiddich aged for two decades ($1,550), pink Dom Pérignon ($1,100) and, the ultimate splurge, a bottle of spicy Rémy Martin Louis XIII cognac ($5,900!). It’s available in the dusky upstairs lounge or an eponymous Louis XIII private room, a hall of mirrors straight out of Versailles.
su m m er sk atinG
Ontario Place 955 Lake Shore Blvd. W.
Ice-skating at the waterfront is one of the few truly magical things about winter in Toronto, and this year, Ontario Place is looking
to summerize the frosty pastime. They’ve installed a synthetic polymer rink on the water’s edge, where Torontonians can live out their Tessa and Scott fantasies without freezing their toes off. After they’ve perfected the triple Salchow, visitors can check out the nearby Ping-Pong tables and volleyball courts to get the full beach party experience.
Gl a m pinG r etr e at
Whispering Springs 141 Mercer Ln., Grafton, 905-349-1009
John Corcoran is an expert in the art of pampering: his family owns Ste. Anne’s Spa. Last summer, after living on a sailboat in the Bahamas for a decade, John and his wife, Nancy, opened a sumptuous glamping oasis an hour and a half outside the city. Each of the 10 swanky safari tents has a massive soaker tub, a private barbecue and a king-size bed made from reclaimed barn
bo t tle serv ice
Goldie 619 King St. W., 416-214-3180
At most Toronto clubs, bottle service is code for a cramped booth with cheap vodka, apathetic service and shiny pleather couches that wouldn’t fare well under a black light. Things are different at Goldie, a plush new lounge in a Victorian August 2018 toronto life 45
beams or birch. Some tents look out over horses in the pasture, while others sit next to the property’s glittering spring-fed ponds. This year, the Corcorans have upped the luxury with a saltwater pool, an outdoor pizza oven, room service and an organic vegetable garden. From $295 per night.
off the grid entirely, the digital check-in system and room-service app ensure you never have to interact with another human being. From $299 per night.
R e a ding SeR ie S
Drag Queen Storytime Toronto Public Library, various locations
of the
ty ci
fun
A former Comfort Inn off a dodgy stretch of Yonge Street has transformed into a Mad Men–style masterpiece, with large mid-centurymodern-style rooms, complete with record players and vintage art. The main floor has everything you need to never leave the building, including a café, Crows Nest barbershop, and Constantine, an excellent Mediterranean restaurant from La Palma chef Craig Harding. If your goal is to go
2 018
a dv en tu R e
Ripley’s Aquarium 288 Bremner Blvd., 647-351-3474
The best way to avoid the crowds at the city’s busiest tourist attraction is to see it from the other side of the glass. Divers get a behindthe-scenes tour of the facility, where they’ll see the filtration tanks, learn how the water is tested and visit the kitchen where the shark food gets made (the animals eat restaurant-grade seafood). Then, they’ll make like mermaids and complete a halfhour guided dive through the so-called Dangerous Lagoon, filled with grouper, moray eels, sea turtles, sawfish and, yes, sand tiger sharks, which look menacing but wouldn’t hurt a goldfish. $250.
g o -k a Rt tR ack
K1 Speed 75 Carl Hall Rd., 1-833-517-7333
The latest edition of Mario Kart has sold 10 million copies worldwide, but it doesn’t compare to the real thing. At Downsview Park, there’s a new indoor go-karting facility that puts Wario Stadium to shame: the track is a 46 toronto life August 2018
serpentine thread of surprise twists and hairpin turns, and the electric go-karts reach high speeds faster than a gas engine. The place offers dropin racing and lessons from NASCAR pros, but we recommend rounding up your most competitive friends and renting out the place for a private grand prix. $55 per person.
patio
Broadview Hotel 106 Broadview Ave., 416-362-8439
A visit to the city’s hottest terrace comes with a conundrum: do you pick a seat facing out over the unbeatable 360-degree view of the Toronto skyline, or one facing in, where you’ll find the best people-watching this side of the Don River? Since opening last summer, the Broadview has more than lived up to its hype as the east end’s answer to the Drake, right down to the hipster-approved backstory: in its former life, it was the fabled Jilly’s strip club. Funky furniture and gracious service complete the urban oasis fantasy. The cocktails help, too: we like the Becky With the Good Hair, made with vodka, OJ, carrot juice, coconut water and allspice syrup. $14.
photographs courtesy of businesses
15 Charles St. E., 416-924-1222
We have Mama RuPaul to thank for the sudden proliferation of drag in Toronto: there’s drag brunch, drag cruises, even drag bingo. But our favourite queeny pursuit takes place on weekend mornings at the library, where some of the city’s fiercest performers show up to entertain neighbourhood families. In full face and heels, local queens like Miss Theo Rose, Lucy Flawless and Juice Boxx read LGBTfriendly kids’ books and sing campy songs, all the while teaching kids about the values of cultural inclusivity and lace-front wigs. Because reading is what? Fundamental!
bes t
Staycation
The Anndore House
#ZimSculpt
Friday, August 3 through September 30, 2018
A dazzling exhibition of hand-carved stone sculpture by contemporary Zimbabwean artists, displayed throughout the gardens.
FREE ADMISSION
torontobotanicalgarden.ca/ZimSculpt
777 Lawrence Avenue East, Toronto, ON M3C 1P2 416-397-1341 info@torontobotanicalgarden.ca W torontobotanicalgarden.ca T
E
… AND DON’T MISS FREE LIVE MUSIC THURSDAY NIGHTS AT 7 P.M. JULY 5 TO AUG 23
EDWARDS SUMMER MUSIC SERIES
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Instagrammable dessert
Mira 420A Wellin gton St. W. | 647-951- 3331
At Hanif Harji’s splashy new Peruvian restaurant, chef Stuart Cameron whips up all manner of fishy dishes—bay scallops, crispy fluke, four kinds of ceviche, each one of them stunningly picturesque. But the most Instagrammable item at Mira is on the dessert menu. From the outside, El Huevo Malo (“the bad egg”) resembles a plain chocolate sphere the size of a five-pin bowling ball. It’s what’s inside that counts. A server taps the sphere gingerly with a spoon until the shell shatters to reveal a crater filled with coffee ice cream, crunchy chocolate bread pudding, honeycomb crumbles, sweet-tart yuzu marmalade, fresh raspberries and colourful flower petals (which are also edible, of course). $18.
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Froz en tr e at
Paradice 792 College St., 647-648-1936
Italy, churns out mountains of snow splashed with traditional syrups like blue raspberry, cherry and watermelon. They’re all great, but the truly stupefying stuff is on the secret menu, where you’ll find the candy funhouse: shaved ice coated in cotton candy and stuffed with vanilla ice cream and gummy bears. From $7.
pasta lu nch
Famiglia Baldassarre 122 Geary Ave., 647-293-5395
The city’s most supple noodles don’t come out of a fancy restaurant or downtown enoteca. They’re hand-made in a nondescript brick warehouse on Geary Avenue, where devotees line up for $12 plates of Leandro Baldassarre’s freshly made pasta, only served Tuesday through Friday from noon to 2 p.m. He calls it Società Pasta Baldassarre, and his daily specials—like cavatelli with
K a m aya n Fe ast
Tinuno 31 Howard St., 647-343-9294
Summer is no time for gloves, unless they’re the clear plastic ones distributed at this cozy Filipino eat-withyour-hands spot. There’s no dinner menu: you sit down, and a wooden plank of food appears on the table. It’s loaded with hunks of pork belly and grilled pork skewers, head-on shrimp and mussels on the half shell, grilled tilapia and calamari, all served over banana leaves on a bed of garlic rice. Pro tip: make sure to Instagram the whole spread before you start eating, because once you dive in, your hands will be of no use for anything but grabbing the next mouthful. $15 per person.
photographs: mira by thomas van der zaag; paradice by paradice; baldassarre by daniel neuhaus
Barack Obama’s favourite indulgence—aside from his nightly handful of almonds— is kakigori, a Japanese shaved-ice dessert that became popular a century ago among sugar cane plantation workers in Hawaii. Shaved ice is smoother and softer than a snow cone, and it usually comes drowned in a rainbow of tropical syrups that coalesce into fruit-punchy goodness. Paradice, a neon-lit parlour in Little
rapini and anchovy—are yet another way to appreciate your office’s relaxed summer hours policy.
August 2018 toronto life 49
Labora 433 King St. W., 416-260-9993
Manipura Doubles @doublesfoodtrike
Lucas Boers is on a mission to bring West Indian–style
Wednesdays at the Scotia Plaza Farmers’ Market and on Friday and Saturday evenings in Trinity Bellwoods Park. Brides and grooms, take note: he also does weddings.
se cr et ba r
L’Absinthe Parlour 488 College St., 647-748-4004
Tucked above the Little Italy bistro Coq of the Walk is a cozy ode to the green fairy that looks just like your friend’s living room—if your friend lived in belle époque Paris. The place, which is only open on Fridays and Saturdays, carries a dozen absinthe varieties, including a rye-based version from Toronto distillers Dillon’s, and Mansinthe, a Swissmade spirit created by Marilyn Manson. You can drink them neat from a traditional Gilded Age drip fountain or mixed into cocktails like a Chef Devil, with sparkling wine and lime sorbet. The menu offers on-theme French cheeses and charcuterie, which may help avoid le grand hangover.
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If your summer travel plans don’t include a beachside spell in Barcelona, chef Rob Bragagnolo’s bocata de calamar is the next best thing. Served inside King West’s trendy Majorcan-inspired food hall, his battered golden rings of squid are wrapped around pickled piparra peppers and tucked inside a mollete roll that’s generously slathered with creamy aïoli. It’s crunchy, smooth, spicy, salty, pillowy perfection, and it goes down
Food tr ik e
curried chickpea flatbread pockets to the streets of Toronto…by tricycle. He makes six zingy, aromatic vegan dishes out of his Parkdale commissary. Our favourite is the traditional doubles: savoury channa on homemade bara (fried flatbread), with sweet-and-sour tamarind sauce, tomatillo chutney, fresh grated cucumber and a hit of pineapple– scotch bonnet pepper sauce. Because Boers’ delivery method isn’t motorized— it’s classified as a cart—he can access locations that most food trucks can’t. This summer, look for him and his bike on Tuesdays and Thursdays for lunch service in Liberty Village, on
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nash v ille hot ch ick en
Chica’s 2853 Dundas St. W., 647-343-6562
The city’s hottest food trend—and we mean that 50 toronto life August 2018
photographs: labora by dave gillespie; manipura, l’absinthe courtesy of businesses
slider
particularly well with a glass of Spanish vermouth on the rocks. $9.50.
A Timeless Appeal in the Heart of Midtown
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For more information or to arrange your private tour, contact Kevin Crigger at 416.837.3296
skypenthouse.ca
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literally—is Nashville hot chicken, fried chicken’s angrier cousin. Of the three Toronto kitchens dedicated to the spicy bird, Chica’s in the Junction is the newest and best of the bunch, run by Adamson Barbecue alum Matthew Pelechaty and his wife, Carolyn. The chicken comes in quarter meals, half meals, a wing plate and a sandwich. First, they deep-fry it, then dredge it in one of three piquant oils: mild, medium and “hot AF.” That third option is made with the world’s hottest pepper, which goes by the lovely name of the Carolina Reaper. The crispy bird is topped with a few pickle coins and left to drip dry on a slice of lily-white Wonder Bread. We suggest ordering a side of waffle fries and some house-made buttermilk ranch to cool the palate between bites.
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Birch Bistro
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623 Mount Pleasant Rd., 416-901-1623
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The dinner menu at midtown’s new bistro lists pristine French classics: scallops en croute poached in white wine, duck confit with bacon and sautéed endive, boeuf bourguignon with pearl onions in a red wine jus. The dessert card, however, is Magritte-inspired mania. Pastry chef Calvin Wat makes sculptural sweets that look like lemons, cherries and grapefruits. Inside, there’s a Russian nesting doll’s worth of layers: the herbal, punchy Granny Smith is a sous-vide apple coated in lime mousse, dill-lime coulis and a gleaming Valhrona chocolate shell. $15.
V e ga n bu rger
Rosalinda 133 Richmond St. W., 416-907-0650
At Grant van Gameren’s new vegan Mexican spot, the plantbased dishes don’t masquerade as meat: there’s coconut ceviche, a jackfruit pibil taco and roasted carrots with mole. The Rosa Burger is already a fan favourite, and for good reason. A seared and caramelized black bean patty comes topped with avocado crema, a crispy smoked eggplant chip, kicky chipotle mayo and shredded iceberg—what chef de cuisine Matt Ravenscroft lovingly calls “sub shop lettuce”—all smushed in a Wonder Bread bun. For an extra couple of bucks you can (and should) add a thick layer of I-can’tbelieve-it’s-not-dairy Libretto mozzarella. $18.
photographs: burger courtesy of rosalinda; dessert by daniel neuhaus
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Sukoshi Mart 160 Baldwin St., No. 7, 647-358-4040
fOOD
Shinta Japanese BBQ 280 West Beaver Creek Rd., Richmond Hill, 905-597-0305
The people who opened an all-you-can-eat sushi spot and an all-you-can-eat hot pot place—sense a pattern?—have created Shinta, an all-you-can-eat DIY Japanese barbecue restaurant in Richmond Hill that specializes in all things beefy. The baller menu, starting at $69.99, is the main attraction: it includes kalbi short ribs,
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Kensington Market’s lilliputian variety store is packed to the gills with hard-to-find snacks, drinks, stationery and trinkets from Japan. Sukoshi customers can find Hello Kitty candy, honeydew melon soda and instant ramen, along with healthy house-made lunches, like onigiri (spicy tuna is the bestseller) and bento boxes (yakisoba in tonkatsu sauce with soft-boiled eggs, braised pork belly and panseared gyoza). There’s a kettle and microwave in the
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back of the shop for customers who can’t wait to crack into their noodles.
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miso-marinated salmon, New Zealand lamb racks, and all the Australian and U.S. Wagyu you can put away. If all that isn’t enough, diners can supplement their protein with even fancier cuts of marbled meat for an additional charge.
ICE Cr E A m su n dA E
Aloette
When we were kids and dreamed of the perfect sundae, it looked a lot like the one at Aloette. Chef Patrick Kriss’s no-reservations restaurant—the kid brother of Alo, two floors up—creates this dessert masterpiece by taking an old-fashioned milkshake glass and layering it with vanilla ice cream, caramel, more ice cream, more caramel, whipped cream and flakes of salted feuilletine, with hunks of roasted pineapple throughout. But the real secret ingredient to this beautiful mess? Nostalgia. $12. 54 toronto life August 2018
photographs: sundae by stephanie madeira; bbq by renée suen
163 Spadina Ave., 416-260-3444
N E W
ontario’s best wines delivered to your home or office
This month, Toronto Life is launching its first-ever wine club—a monthly subscription program to help readers discover fantastic, hard-to-get bottles from the best Ontario wineries. Each wine is tasted and evaluated by us. We then create seasonally themed three-packs of the wines we love and send them right to you. Receiving the monthly shipment is like visiting the vineyards and cellars of the most exciting Ontario winemakers without ever leaving home. member benefIts
• A monthly pack of three small-batch wines delivered to your home or office • Opportunity to taste new, exclusive and hard-to-obtain wines • Expert insight with tasting notes and food pairings • No obligation; cancel at any time
In thIs month’s three-pack
join now!
$79/month Includes shipping and handling
Tawse Winery Laundry Cabernet Franc 2013 Retail $34.95 | Vineland Biodynamic and eco-friendly, Tawse has made this intense, generous wine with a long finish. Drink with grilled lamb, a juicy steak or pretty much anything cooked over charcoal.
For our first Wine Club delivery, there’s a little bit of everything to complement the perfect summer: a bold and elegant red, a luxurious sparkling rosé, and a crisp and fresh white.
Redstone Winery Sparkling Rosé 2016 Retail $29.95 | Beamsville The winery’s first-ever sparkling rosé is made from 100 per cent pinot noir grapes. Crisp and refreshing, it has an irresistible creamy quality. Sip it solo, or pair with grilled scallops or oysters on the half shell.
Stratus Vineyards Kabang Riesling 2015 Retail $21 | Niagara-on-the-Lake This dry sipper is everything you want in a summer white: full of lime, apple, pear and that flinty mineral quality that demands another sip. A great patio wine.
to learn more about the wInemakers and sIgn up, vIsIt
torontolife.com/wineclub
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Patio Plates
Xenia Taler Xeniataler.com
The Toronto designer Xenia Taler started out creating backsplashes for giant kitchen showrooms. Now she sells stationery and bamboo dinnerware at indie Toronto boutiques, as well as big-name stores like Anthropologie and West Elm. For barbecues and garden parties, bamboo dishes are the new melamine: they’re sustainable, chemical-free and dishwasherfriendly. And when they’re designed by Taler, they’re also super-cute, available in a variety of cheerful zigzag, spotted and striped pastel prints. $52 for a set of four.
K id s’ stor e
Curiosa
photographs: plates by thomas van der zaag; curiosa by daniel neuhaus; towel courtesy of kol kid
1273 Queen St. W., 647-341-0394
This Harry Potter–themed curiosity shop, done up with dark hues and Dickensian faux-gaslight, looks like it belongs on Diagon Alley instead of Queen West. But you don’t have to be a total Potterhead to enjoy the spectacle. More magic-inspired Urban Outfitters than Disney theme shop, the store offers a mix of knick-knacks and novelty items, including books about tarot, fortune-telling and magic; a vintage token machine that allows customers to create their own good luck charms; and gear devoted to the four Hogwarts houses. (A “List of Enemies” notebook is an essential for any selfrespecting Slytherin).
Be ach tow el
Kol Kid 674 Queen St. W., 416-681-0368
From Big Mouth, the company that brought us inflatable pool floats shaped like doughnuts and swans, comes a collection of beach blankets guaranteed to get you noticed among the terry cloth–toting masses. In this case, polyester is a good thing: the lakeside throws are durable, soft and machine washable. They’re fun enough for kids but roomy enough to fit full-size adults. Our favourite is the giant avocado, though the tri-colour Rocket Pop is a close (and cool) second. $40–$45. August 2018 toronto life 57
su r f shop
Surf the Greats 276 Carlaw Ave., 647-479-8969
58 toronto life August 2018
tote
Nordstrom nordstrom.com
We’re obsessed with the Los Angeles brand Ban.Do, which works with indie designers to create fun, fizzy slogan tees and accessories, usually in shades of millennial pink. Our current favourite item is a waterproof vegan-leather grapefruit tote. It’s work-friendly and doubles as a beachy cooler bag—ideally suited for chilling LaCroix cans, rosé bottles and other pink drinks. $45.
cust om sh a de s
Fellow Earthlings fellowearthlings.com
Husband-and-wife team Christopher and Sydney Seggie hand-make colourful specs from recycled manufacturing materials. Customers can choose from a huge range of shapes, colours and lenses
online, creating their own unique Frankenglasses: round mint crystal frames with gold mirrored lenses, for example, or tortoiseshell cateyes with brown lenses. Fans of the brand include Canada’s first couple: Sophie has a pair of cat-eye frames, while Justin wears aviators with vintage leather detailing. $300–$400.
photographs courtesy of retailers
shopping
The 6 may not be the first city you think of when it comes to catching the ultimate swell, but it turns out the Great Lakes offer some pretty great waves. So says Antonio Lennert, a local surf swami and the founder of Leslieville’s new boutique dedicated to all things gnarly, with a massive selection of sleek surfboards and stand-up paddleboards. Part retail space, part café, it’s a place where surfers congregate over coffee, noobs can sign up for lessons and camps, and posers can pick up board shorts, floppy hats and the same Rip Curl neoprene surf jacket that Blake Lively wore in The Shallows.
Easy Tiger 1447 Dundas St. W., 647-748-6161
The Vancouver ceramicist Lindsey Hampton makes cannabis paraphernalia so pretty you’ll want to display it on your coffee table (and you can—it’s practically legal!). Her hand-crafted
pipes measure about nine centimetres across and come in two versions of rainbow ombré, with a ring shape that makes for an easy grip and thus a more potent toke. Bonus: she also makes tiny, matching ombré stoneware mini-dishes that work well as ashtrays. $155.
FPO
po t pipe
face roller
Pura Botanicals purabotanicals.com
Be ach r e a d s
Queen Books
bes t
A new bookstore opening in Toronto is like a baby being born on The Handmaid’s Tale: rare, sacred and cause for celebration. Queen Books, a small Leslieville storefront, is sweet and folksy, with books displayed on antique tables and welltrodden Persian rugs underfoot. The robust collection, hand-picked by owners Alex Snider and Liz Burns, includes a hefty pile of engrossing beach reads with a literary tilt. And if you’re the kind of person who needs to discuss what you read, the store hosts a bevy of events, including the Murderino Book Club, devoted to truecrime fanatics.
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photographs courtesy of retailers
914 Queen St. E., 416-778-5053
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Every beauty blogger and her grandma has a jade roller, but obsidian rollers are much harder to come by; the Edmonton apothecary Pura has its pieces handmade in India. The moody black mineral is known among New Agers as the stone of self-acceptance. For more practical purposes, the rolling ritual kick-starts lymphatic drainage, tightens pores and reduces breakouts. Pro tip: keep it in the fridge and use it every morning to combat pre-coffee puffiness. $54.
picn ic Bask et
Wayfair wayfair.ca
On the outside, it’s a simple willow-woven hamper with leather straps. On the inside, it’s a seemingly bottomless Mary Poppins miracle, filled with dinner service for four, including stemless wine glasses and silverware, plus an insulated wine cooler bag, a wine duffel, an acacia cheese board, a foldable pinewood table and a cotton patchwork picnic blanket. Egg salad sandwiches on the deck never looked so good. $600. August 2018 toronto life 59
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Advice From a Caterpillar
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8 Price St., 416-960-2223
ca f ta ns
Aloja 872 College St., 416-533-5652
shopping
Forget the bikini body. This summer is all about the caftan body, which allows you to eat whatever you want, guzzle rosé with abandon and swathe yourself in billowing silks like you’re Elizabeth Taylor on a yacht. Aloja, a stunning new caftan emporium on College, sells ethically made beach cover-ups in silk and linen, all hand-crafted by Indian designers. Our favourite pieces are by Aish, a Kolkata-based brand that hires local textile artisans to weave and colour-block luxurious wraps in hot pink, periwinkle and mustard. They’re comfy, floaty and universally flattering. $260–$360.
m en ’ s sh irts
18 Waits 980 Queen St. W., 647-346-0118
Every episode of Netflix’s addictive Queer Eye reboot ends the same way: the madeover man-child acquires a new sense of self-worth, some basic emotional literacy and a closetful of whimsically printed button-downs. For those of us
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Over the Rainbow 101 Yorkville Ave., 416-967-7448
Meghan Markle’s Givenchy wedding gown was nice, but we’re still not over the jeans— ripped jeans!—she paired with a crisp white oxford and flats for her first public appearance on the arm of her prince, at the
who aren’t lucky enough to be dressed by the Fab Five, the best place to get the look is 18 Waits on Queen West, which makes its own line of Tan France–style cotton shirts. They’re soft and slim, and come in dozens of quirky yet subtle prints, including pastel cacti, tiny pineapples, palm trees and lots of flowers. From $146.
Invictus Games in Toronto last fall. While the duchess’s days of ripped anything are likely behind her, we commoners can still shop Mother Denim’s ankle-skimming, frayed-hem skinnies at Yorkville’s jean emporium, which carries the style in a variety of washes and hole configurations. From $298.
photographs: shop, swimsuit, jeans courtesy of retailers; shirt by daniel neuhaus
The owners of this Rosedale children’s boutique travel around the world to hunt down miniature versions of fashion’s top trends, including organic cotton caftans, muslin bathrobes and made-in-Brooklyn tutus. Their collection of swimwear is awwinducingly cute: they carry retro pastel suits by Petit Bateau, ruffly one-pieces from the Korean label Tambere, and kaleidoscopic ’80s printed pieces by Noé and Zoë. We especially love Stella McCartney’s eco-friendly girls’ suits, splashed with watercolour patterns and made with a polyester fabric that’s protected with a layer of SPF 50 ($87.50).
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Custom lipstiCk
Bite Beauty 678 Q u een St. W. | 416 - 860 - 5652
At Queen West’s lip lab, persnickety makeup diehards can custom-blend their own unique lip colours on the spot. First, you choose from nearly 200 pigments, made from ingredients so natural—shea butter, beeswax, natural oils—that they’re actually edible. The lab artists mix the colours like Renaissance painters, adding a tinge of mauve here, a dash of coral there. Then, you select finishes that range from glossy sheer to matte creme, and top it off with a scent like coconut, wild berry or mint. The technicians cook the new blend, whip it in a centrifuge and set it for 10 minutes on a cold plate until it hardens. Watching the whole Willy Wonka process is almost as much fun as walking out with your own bespoke shade. $55.
Br a in wor kout
Mindset 62 Cumberland St.
photographs: lipstick by thomas van der zaag; barber by daniel neuhaus; mill courtesy of elora mill
You know the wellness trend has reached its zenith when a “brain gym” arrives in Yorkville. Mindset is aimed at helping Bay Streeters build their mental stamina. In the gym’s meditation room, Zenseekers don Muse headbands, perch on ergonomic veganleather bolsters, and listen to crashing waves or rainfall as an instructor walks them through 30-minute guided meditations. For private sessions, a pod is filled with calming LED Nanoleaf light displays and a zero-gravity reclining chair that makes you feel like you’re floating. Clients can book the room in 25-minute increments and choose from pre-recorded sessions on an iPad, which they listen to through noisecancelling headphones. Even if your mind wanders all the way to sleepytown, it’s guaranteed to be the best nap you’ve had since preschool. Memberships $150 per month.
turns into a full-fledged bar, mixing cocktails with ingredients like house-blended yuzu bitters, gardenia-scented dry vermouth and coconutpineapple foam.
luxury is the monthly membership fee—only $99 for unlimited classes.
spa
Elora Mill Fa ncy gy m
The Rosedale Club
77 Mill St. W., Elora, 519-846-8464
920 Yonge St., 416-479-1080
The city’s hot new sweat shop looks less like a gym than a boutique hotel, with marble change rooms, eucalyptus towel service and a juice bar. The TechnoGym fitness machines—the same ones used in the Olympic Athletes’ Village—remember your Netflix profile and workout routine; the class selection includes modern dance, hot yoga and ballet barre; and the turf zone looks like a grown-up jungle gym. The only thing that isn’t next-level
The 175-year-old former grist mill, an hour and a half from Toronto, was closed for eight years while it got a $27-million makeover. It was worth the wait. The hotel is perched on the side of a cliff overlooking Elora’s Grand River, and
Booz y Ba r Bershop
Barber and Co. 89 Ossington Ave., 416-551-9707
It took Barber and Co.’s owners three years to find the perfect space in Toronto, one located smack dab in the city’s epicentre of cool, with floorto-ceiling windows in the front and a secret bar in the back. Services include hot shaves, beard maintenance and expert renditions of the essential hipster haircuts: the pompadour, the fade, the undercut–man bun combo. And instead of the usual tap water or drip coffee, clients drink scotch and bourbon, or local beers. At night, the snipping stops, and the place August 2018 toronto life 63
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many—there’s a vegetable garden, a vineyard and gourmet breakfasts prepared by Frank—but the best reason to book a getaway is the massive woodfired sauna made from a blimp-size cedar barrel. It’s both a rustic novelty and a genuine relaxation tool, the perfect place to sweat out every last drop of city stress. From $213 per night.
beauty
Blinged - out m a n icu r e
Pinky’s Nails 540 Sherbourne St., Unit 807, 416-964-6072
W eir d Wor kout
GoGo Muscle Training 170 Yorkville Ave., 647-440-4646
trend, condenses an hour and a half of exercise into a cool 20 minutes. It may sound like magic, but it’s actually science. Clients slap on a chunky black Lara Croft bodysuit studded with electrodes that zap the body every few seconds, causing the muscles to contract more frequently while they perform an alreadyintense workout of squats and planks. At $499 per month, membership is pricier than your typical YMCA, but the power to cheat time in pursuit of a flat stomach is worth it.
Sau na
The Wilfrid Boutique Farmhouse 1375 Royal Rd., Milford, 438-390-2505
Electric muscle stimulation, the latest techie workout 64 toronto life August 2018
Three years ago, Montreal expats Nancy Pavan, an art director, and Frank Ellefsen,
a chef, bought a sprawling Victorian farmhouse in Prince Edward County that had been in the same family since the 1840s. The couple transformed the place into a posh yet cozy B&B, furnished with ornate antiques and modern flourishes. The perks are
photographs courtesy of businesses
the spa has the best views of all, including a three-storey glass solarium that sits above a rushing waterfall. Guests can start the day with a yoga class, hop from sauna to steam room, enjoy specialized massages and mud wraps, and finish off with a mimosa by the infinity pool.
Cardi B gets credit for summer’s hottest nail trend: wildly over-the-top stilettoed tips bedazzled with more crystals and jewels than you’d find in an Ocean’s 8 heist. In Toronto, Justin Cappelletti of Pinky’s Nails is the guy drag queens trust with their fancy talons. Each design is more outrageous than the next: he does ombré patterns of cascading Swarovski crystals, iridescent beetle designs with crystal appliqué, and kawaii Sailor Moon nail art with faux pearls and glitter.
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At Soulpepper, Albert Schultz was a suave and successful impresario who could charm millions out of wealthy donors. Then four actresses accused him of sexual harassment. The inside story of his dramatic collapse
Down f all ccording to local legend, Soulpepper Theatre Company was named by a threeyear-old girl called Julia—the daughter of its founders, Albert Schultz and Susan Coyne. Overhearing her father on the phone agonizing over the need for a name that had both “depth and spice,” the toddler reportedly paused over her colouring and said, “Soulpepper.” This story would form part of the mythology of Albert Schultz—a man who loves to weave narratives, especially about himself. He co-founded Soulpepper in 1998 with a mandate to produce underperformed theatrical classics. At the beginning, the company struggled to find its way, financing itself with hot dog fundraisers and money from its members’ pockets. It briefly flirted with a collective co-directorship, but it seemed inevitable that Schultz would ultimately take control, which he did in 2000.
photograph photograph byby contributors sian richards name tk
By Leah McLaren
August 2018 toronto life 67
photograph by contributors name tk
“ S c hu l t z i s v e r y p e r s u a s i v e at g e t t i n g r ic h p eople to op en t h e i r d e e p p o c ke t s ,” s ay s h i s f r i e n d Noa h R ic h le r 68 toronto life August 2018
Like many artists, Schultz was loath to relinquish control. He involved himself in almost every aspect of the production process. His micromanagerial approach is praised by some former colleagues (“He wore 86 different hats, amazingly well”) and excoriated by others (“It was like a sickness, his need to expand and conquer everything”). The entire company revolved around his vision—and his whims.
n the spring of 2000, Schultz formed Soulpepper’s inaugural Young Company, which later evolved into the Soulpepper Academy, a full-scale mentorship program for Canadian actors, funded largely by private donations raised single-handedly by Schultz. He often claimed that his training program was the legacy that made him proudest. He scouted budding actors from theatre schools and smaller productions around the country. Among them were Patricia Fagan and Kristin Booth. Fagan, who was fresh out of the George Brown theatre school at the time, had a wide-open face, large blue eyes and the kind of urgent voice that invites you to lean in and listen. Back then, as now, there was something deeply sympathetic about her, a kind of vulnerability that served her well onstage. Booth was angelically blond, with an arrestingly pretty face that will be familiar to anyone who watches a lot of Canadian TV. The two women, aged 23 and 25 respectively, were cast as Viola and Olivia, the female leads in Twelfth Night. For a fledgling Toronto actor, landing a lead at Soulpepper was a major career break. Both Fagan and Booth revered Schultz from the outset. He was often goofy and playful, staging elaborate practical jokes at work and palling around with company members after hours. Despite the great power he wielded, he was also capable of filling a rehearsal studio with joy and laughter. Schultz was never big on boundaries—emotional, professional or otherwise. He longed for personal connection, to be treated as one of the troops as well as the glorious leader. As the summer wore on, the actors’ worship gave way to resentment. “When he would break me down, or humiliate me, it was...followed with this unbelievable love and praise and acceptance,” Booth later told the CBC. “He was very good at breaking you down and building you back up to the point where you almost needed him.” They also claim that the rehearsal process with Schultz was fraught with sexual advances. Booth says that he would greet her with a kiss on the mouth, claiming her lips were full and soft. He would allegedly slap the actors’ butts and sometimes stand in for male actors to demonstrate the correct way to simulate sex. At one point, according to Fagan, Schultz stood in for a male actor, fully clothed, and pressed his penis between her buttocks. Another time, they say, he led an acting exercise in the parking lot outside Harbourfront Centre during rehearsals for Twelfth Night. According to Fagan and Booth, Schultz asked them to go through the list of male company members and tell him who they’d like to fuck. The goal of the exercise, they say, was for them to convincingly express sexual interest in men they did not find attractive. Eventually, they both professed their false attraction to Schultz while he watched and judged whether he believed them. Both women say they felt demoralized and powerless under Schultz—a man who was supposed to be their
photographs: romeo and juliet by michael cooper; young centre by getty images; rehearsal by cp images
At the time, Schultz was a respected Canadian actor, if not exactly a household name. Like most of the Soulpepper talent, he came up through the Stratford Festival’s Young Company. He went on to star on the hit CBC series Street Legal, then ricocheted between dramatic roles (Conrad Black in a TV movie) and less serious endeavours (children of the ’90s might recall him as a singing roofer on The Red Green Show). Schultz had the kind of messy good looks that serve male performers well. He was too freckle-faced to be dismissed as a pretty boy, and his considerable height and booming voice lent him the gravitas of an unconventional leading man. More than anything, he was famous for his energy—an infectious mixture of old-school bombast and boyish enthusiasm. He wore his confidence lightly, swishing it about his shoulders like a cloak. Schultz was enormously ambitious and entitled—a vivacious character with great warmth and generosity of spirit who could also be churlish, perfectionistic, even downright mean. There are plenty of stories of Schultz humiliating actors. According to one such tale, he reduced a young actor to tears during an audition on September 11, 2001, chastising her for a lack of focus (an allegation he denies). Like so many actors, he had a playful ease that masked a deepseated need for public veneration. To his enemies, he was a textbook narcissist, an expert at charming those he needed and using those he didn’t. But to his friends—many of whom banked large sums of money upon his continued success—he was a man who should have been lauded and applauded until his death. The birth of Soulpepper could not have been better timed. When it was founded, Toronto’s theatre scene was divided by a vast cultural chasm. On one side were tiny, cash-starved outfits like Tarragon, Factory and Theatre Passe Muraille, putting on gritty original works by homegrown writers. On the other side of the divide was David Mirvish, who staged glitzy Broadway-style musicals. Albert Schultz recognized this cultural gap and filled it with Ibsen, Chekhov, Pinter, Beckett. Finally, Torontonians could enjoy a thoughtful evening at the theatre without having to drive two hours to Stratford or beat the sawdust off their bottoms at the end of the night. They opened with just two plays—Schiller’s Don Carlos and Molière’s The Misanthrope—both of which were box office hits. The company quickly gained a reputation for contemporary, urbane minimalism, eschewing the gaudy sets and elaborate period costumes favoured by Stratford and Shaw. They prized the texts above all else, creating a theatrical experience that served character and narrative first and spectacle second.
Albert Schultz and his ex-wife, Susan Coyne, performing in a 1987 production of Romeo and Juliet at Stratford
At Soulpepper, Schultz involved himself in every aspect of production. Here, he directs rehearsals for Spoon River in 2017
Schultz stands on the site of the Young Centre for the Performing Arts in the Distillery District, which was completed in 2006
mentor. They claim they didn’t tell anyone about it because they just assumed that was what the theatre is like. When Twelfth Night finally opened in mid-August, the reviews were positive, and Booth and Fagan were singled out as new talents to watch. They both felt that Schultz exploited their youth and inexperience—and yet they both kept quiet in the hopes that they would get to work with him again.
ver the next two decades, Schultz’s gift for fundraising became legendary in Toronto arts circles. “He is very persuasive at getting rich people to open their deep pockets,” his friend Noah Richler told me. The most generous group of donors was known as the Soul Circle Mentors, and included such big-name Toronto arts patrons as Gary and Donna Slaight, Ira Gluskin and Maxine Granovsky, and Sonja and Michael
Koerner. Every year, Schultz would accompany the Soul Circle Mentors and a few members of the company to New York City, where they would attend several Broadway shows and schmooze over lavish meals in the best restaurants. “Those times were pure and utter magic,” one wealthy Soulpepper patron told me, his voice heavy with nostalgia. By 2016, the theatre had an annual budget of almost $12 million, the vast majority of which came from private sponsorship. The stories of Schultz’s casual persuasion are legendary. David Young, whose family foundation awarded the company a gift of $3 million in 2003, signed the cheque without ever having seen a Soulpepper production. Charles Baillie, the former chairman and CEO of TD Bank, donated $750,000 after bumping into Schultz at Rosedale subway station. Those two gifts formed the foundation of the company’s permanent home. In 2006, after spending the better part of a decade at Harbourfront Centre, Soulpepper moved into its own purpose-built, $14-million theatre: the Young Centre for August 2018 toronto life 69
K r ist i n B oot h says S c hu lt z rep eate d ly proposit ioned her a nd suggested t hey get a hotel room t o g e t h e r 70 toronto life August 2018
Schultz co-founded Soulpepper Theatre Company in 1998 with his then-wife, Susan Coyne, and a handful of actor friends. The couple split several years later
In the early 2000s, Leslie Lester was appointed executive director of Soulpepper. She and Schultz began a relationship, and were married last year
in attendance, including many company members, like Patricia Fagan, Ted Dykstra and his wife, Diana Bentley. Schultz’s public persona—the affable, optimistic face he presented to wealthy donors at dinner parties—was different from the mercurial artistic director who ruled his theatre company like an autocrat. I spoke to a number of company members and employees for this piece, and each one described a man who could be evasive, hot-tempered and egotistical. One former colleague described how Schultz once screamed at him for arriving late to a meeting and then, when it was pointed out that he’d in fact texted in advance to say he’d be late, Schultz instantly reverted to his charming self, even hugging the man on the way out the door. And yet most of the people I spoke to said they’d never heard rumours of sexual assault—just garden-variety inappropriateness. These colleagues painted a picture of someone who delighted in making off-colour jokes and flirtatious sexual comments. “He was constantly saying things like, ‘Look at the fucking body on that girl,’ ” a former colleague recounts. “I would call him on it and say, ‘Dude, you’re the artistic director, you can’t talk like that.’ But he would just laugh as if I was crazy to bring it up.” (Schultz, for the record, has denied ever making such a comment.) Because Schultz insisted on performing so many different roles at the company—writer, actor, mentor, director, artistic director, fundraiser, husband-to-the-executive-director—his colleagues were perennially having to seek out and await his feedback. He held a stranglehold of power over one of the
photographs: schultz with coyne by getty images; with lester by george pimentel
the Performing Arts in the Distillery District, which it shares with George Brown College’s theatre school. The building instantly became a symbol of Toronto’s cultural sophistication. The same year, Schultz launched the Soulpepper Academy, for which he chose 10 artists each year to train under his mentorship. I interviewed him for the Globe and Mail just after the academy launched, and spent a long weekend sitting in on the program’s first audition process. I recall the command he had of the room and his infectious enthusiasm when we spoke. I also remember watching as he moved himself to tears making a speech to the 32 hopefuls on the final day of auditions. “I’m getting sad now,” he said. “Parting is such sweet sorrow, but there are glories ahead of us. The problem is, it’s not enough, what we’re doing here. To take 10 of you into safety so you can express your voices...I wish...I wish we could do more.” Much of Schultz’s success came down to his ability to communicate with the press, who universally adored him. In 2008, the Toronto Star’s long-time theatre critic Richard Ouzounian called him a “mad visionary” who revitalized Toronto’s theatre scene. In 2013, the Governor General awarded him the Order of Canada. Even American journalists paid attention. “Great cities are known for the theatre companies they keep,” read a 2001 piece in the Chicago Tribune. “In Toronto, one that in its short four seasons has attracted critical attention and audience enthusiasm is Soulpepper.” In a profile published in the Walrus in 2014, the novelist David Macfarlane adopted the purposely theatrical voice of a stage manager giving notes on the character that is “Albert Schultz” (a reference to Soulpepper’s production of Our Town). “Is he a modest man?” he asks. “No. He is not a modest man. He’s an actor, a profession not noted, on the whole, for its modesty. But his aspirations—as an actor, as a director and as the leader of Soulpepper—are as much a part of who he is that neither modesty nor immodesty seem relevant. Albert Schultz is Albert Schultz.” Schultz wielded an extraordinary amount of power at the company—a power that only intensified when Leslie Lester, the woman who would later become his wife, was appointed executive director of Soulpepper. Before joining the company, Lester was a long-time producer at Nightwood, a feminist theatre troupe that produced the works of Ann-Marie MacDonald, among other luminaries. A feisty, funny blonde known for her dynamism and drive, she arrived at Soulpepper in the early 2000s, soon after Schultz and founding company member Susan Coyne had separated. He and Lester entered a relationship, and they married last fall in a large ceremony at their farm in Northumberland County. More than 100 guests were
country’s most valuable arts institutions. Here’s a company joke one former colleague told me: “At Soulpepper, if you wanted to bake a cake, first you’d get the eggs and give them to Albert. Then you’d get the milk and give it to Albert. Then you’d get the flour and sugar, and give it to Albert. Then you’d wait around for ages and ages until Albert announced he wanted to bake a cake.” In order to get anything done at Soulpepper, it had to seem like Schultz’s idea first.
fter performing in Twelfth Night, Kristin Booth returned to the company in 2005, when Schultz cast her in the title role of Ferenc Molnár’s Olympia. At 30, she was no longer an ingenue. She was also engaged. Despite this, she says, Schultz spent most of the rehearsal process propositioning her, leaving notes in her dressing room suggesting they get a hotel room together. Another time, during a rehearsal, she says he stepped in for an actor and ran his hands up her body. Booth’s costume was a low-cut dress, and she says her chest became a point of obsession for Schultz, who allegedly commented and joked about it regularly. “How could anyone resist those milky white breasts?” he reportedly said. Patricia Fagan went on to become a regular company member at Soulpepper, performing in several productions over the next few years. During that time, she claims a culture of abuse proliferated inside the company, and that Schultz was regularly
inappropriate, sexually and professionally. She alleges that one night in the summer of 2001, she attended a party at Schultz’s home while Coyne and their kids were out of town. As the party began to wind down, Schultz apparently suggested a game of strip poker to Fagan and four other Soulpepper actors. According to Fagan, the game began with Schultz exposing his penis, though he denies the claim. Fagan, who feared being mocked as a prude by her boundary-pushing boss, says she felt pressured to participate and removed her shirt. A male cast member stripped from the waist down, and a female cast member ended up completely naked. In 2013, Fagan left Soulpepper, saying she wanted to focus on her family. She’s married to TV showrunner (and former Soulpepper member) Adam Pettle, and they have two small children. She never thought about going public about her experiences working with Schultz until May 11, 2016—the day she turned on the news and watched Kathryn Borel, a complainant in the criminal case against Jian Ghomeshi, make a statement on the steps of Old City Hall. The Crown had agreed to drop the case against Ghomeshi if he signed a peace bond admitting his workplace conduct had been “sexually inappropriate.” In Borel’s statement, she described years of sexual and emotional predation she had allegedly experienced at the hands of her former boss. Watching Borel speak about her experience with Ghomeshi, Fagan had flashbacks to working with Schultz. The grabbing and groping, the sex jokes at work that went way too far, the psychological abuse—it was all very familiar. No sooner did she have the thought than she tried to banish it. She thought of his family, his kids. And yet the notion was suddenly there, and it wouldn’t go away. By all outward measures, Schultz was still a hugely effective leader. He had ushered Soulpepper into a new era of artistic glory, remounting sold-out shows for off-Broadway runs, adapting the award-winning play Kim’s Convenience for television, and persuading the great and the good of Toronto to donate millions on top of the company’s hefty annual arts grants. Behind the scenes, however, he was dealing with his own problems. The Soulpepper Academy had begun to fray at the edges, with four of its nine actors leaving by the end of 2017. That year, associate artistic director Ravi Jain had also unhappily parted ways with the company. Hired to bring more diversity to the theatre, Jain quickly found himself at odds with Schultz. “They’re not ready for the change they’re talking about,” he told the Globe last year. After the Ravi Jain fiasco, some people in the theatre world had started to believe that Schultz, though brilliant in his way, was increasingly out of touch and despotic, and that his gestures toward openness and diversity were political moves designed to ensure his grip on power. On October 5, 2017, Patricia Fagan, along with the rest of the world, read the New York Times investigation detailing allegations of sexual harassment and assault against the producer Harvey Weinstein. A few days later, she and her husband hosted a large Thanksgiving dinner for friends and family. Conversation turned to the subject of Weinstein, and, for the first time, Fagan shared some of her own alleged experiences working with Schultz. Her friends were outraged and urged her to go public with her story. Emboldened by the #MeToo movement, she felt it was her duty to speak out—not just for herself, but for her fellow August 2018 toronto life 71
actors and the future of Toronto theatre. At the beginning, all she wanted was to get Schultz to step down from Soulpepper. She never considered pursuing a criminal case. Schultz, after all, didn’t rape anybody. She didn’t believe he should go to jail, but she didn’t want him to hold a position of power any longer. So she sat down and wrote out a diary of all the instances of impropriety she remembered experiencing at the hands of Albert Schultz. Then she picked up the phone and hired a lawyer. Alexi Wood is a civil litigator in her 40s with a self-contained manner and a head of dark corkscrew curls. She’s a partner at St. Lawrence Barristers LLP, a small downtown firm that specializes in civil litigation and regulatory disputes. Fagan realized that in addition to getting Schultz fired, she might well be able to negotiate a financial settlement with Soulpepper. If other women with similar stories came forward, it would strengthen her case. She started calling around. At first she ran into nothing but dead ends. And then she called Kristin Booth. The two women had fallen out of touch, but they quickly began sharing memories of that production of Twelfth Night nearly two decades earlier. After some discussion, Booth said, “Let’s do this.” From that moment, she never wavered. The two women resolved to go forward together. Soon, they heard from Diana Bentley and Hannah Miller, two other Toronto actors who said they’d be willing to share their stories of working under Schultz. Bentley is married to Ted Dykstra, a founding member of the Soulpepper company. She claims that when she appeared in a 2011 production of Our Town, Schultz slapped her butt on successive nights while she helped him with an onstage costume change. When she confronted him, he reportedly said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Miller, who joined the Soulpepper Academy in 2011, claims that during a production of The Crucible the following year, Schultz, who was directing, verbally humiliated her during rehearsals. At one point, she says, he stepped in for a fellow actor without warning and kissed her on the mouth. Schultz’s defenders told me that many of the claims against him are opportunistic recasting of the sort of boundary-pushing behaviour that goes on backstage in almost every theatre. “This is jealous, tall poppy syndrome,” one of Schultz’s friends told me. According to some, practical jokes, butt-slapping, flashing, even directors stepping in to demonstrate sexualized blocking are just part of day-to-day business.
Accord i n g to some of S c hu lt z’s defenders,but tslappi n g a nd f lash i ng a re just pa r t of dayto-day busi ness i n t he t heat re 72 toronto life August 2018
While this may well be true, says the anti-Schultz camp, it doesn’t make it acceptable. “If I smacked you on the ass and told you to get over it, would that be okay?” one irate former company member asked me. “Would you say that was okay because we’re ‘theatre people’? Parading that as an excuse is the definition of the problem.”
s Fagan was preparing to launch her civil suit, she heard that J. Kelly Nestruck, the Globe and Mail’s theatre critic, had been calling around, asking about the toxic culture at Soulpepper and Schultz’s rumoured history of misconduct. She waited for him to call, but he never did. In the wake of the Weinstein scandal, Nestruck had been assigned to investigate the rumours swirling around Soulpepper. In addition to plenty of party gossip about Schultz, Nestruck had received an anonymous letter written on loose-leaf paper in what looked like disguised handwriting. It read, “SOULPEPPER LASZLO MARTON ALBERT SCHULTZ FIND OUT NOW! END IT.” Laszlo Marton is a Hungarian director and former Soulpepper guest artist whom Schultz considered a mentor. His relationship with the company had been quietly and abruptly terminated in 2016 under mysterious circumstances—the board claimed there had been complications with his work visa. But post-Weinstein, an actor in Hungary came forward and accused Marton of sexual harassment; nine more women soon made similar claims. Soulpepper finally admitted the truth: Marton had been fired for allegations of sexual impropriety from someone in the company.
photographs by getty images
On January 3, four Soulpepper actors—clockwise from top left, Hannah Miller, Patricia Fagan, Kristin Booth and Diana Bentley—held a press conference announcing their $7.85-million civil suit against Albert Schultz and Soulpepper, claiming he subjected them to years of sexual harassment
Schultz had unequivocally supported Marton after he left the theatre, urging company members to send their former mentor messages of support and even hosting a dinner for him at his home. Fagan was on the guest list for the party, but she declined to attend. “I was asked to go and honour a man who was fired for sexual harassment at the home of a man who sexually harassed me,” she claimed. Nestruck broke the Marton story in late October. Immediately, Schultz and Lester held a meeting onstage at the Young Centre. He read a statement to the assembled troops disclosing the true nature of Marton’s departure and said that the reason they had kept quiet about it was to protect the anonymity of the claimant. He insisted that Soulpepper took all allegations of sexual harassment seriously and was firmly on the victim’s side. The couple closed the meeting by saying there would be no questions or comments, then they walked into the lobby as company members were filing out. “Albert was hugging everyone, and it made people furious,” one source told me. “There was an element of hypocrisy—to hear Albert saying he cared deeply about sexual harassment when clearly he’d supported Marton all along was too much.” Into this brewing calamity wandered one of the CBC’s most venerable investigative reporters, Julian Sher of The Fifth Estate. A long-time senior producer with the CBC, Sher is the author of six books, and previously worked for the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail. He’s a slight, grey-haired man in his 60s with the squint of someone who’s spent an unhealthy portion of his life hunched over a laptop, and he’s unusually open and affable for a man with his job description. In the midst of #MeToo, the CBC decided that Canada needed to find its own Harvey Weinstein—a powerful and
famous man guilty of sexual impropriety in the workplace. So, Sher told me, they did something unusual. “We created a team where we brought together departments who don’t usually work together. In this case it was the entertainment unit, The Current, The Fifth Estate and the investigative unit.” The investigative dream team made a list of story leads on influential, well-connected and powerful Canadian men alleged to be guilty of impropriety. Then they set about finding their Harvey. “We were making calls, reading books, looking at old newspapers, you know, doing the same thing we always do,” said Sher. “We had several subjects on the go, but quickly the Schultz story percolated to the top. There were more leads, and people were calling us back.” The idea that a public broadcaster would form an interdepartmental investigative team to identify and bring down an as-yet-unknown culprit is not just unusual: in my 17 years of journalism, I’ve never heard of anything like it. And yet in the weeks and months after the Weinstein story, there was a sense among news editors and producers in the Canadian media that we, too, needed to get our man—whoever he might be.
n late 2017, with four complainants on board, the case against Schultz and Soulpepper was looking strong. If the media went big on the story, he would be finished as artistic director before the negotiating process even began. The Globe and the CBC agreed to break the story the same day, and on January 3, 2018, the claimants held a press conference to announce that they were seeking $7.85 million in damages from Schultz and Soulpepper collectively—$4.85 million August 2018 toronto life 73
for Fagan and Booth, and $3 million for Miller and Bentley. The CBC devoted an entire episode of The Fifth Estate to the story, using footage from the press conference, complete with menacing music and voice-over. Schultz learned of the story hours before it broke. At the time, he released a statement saying he would defend himself vehemently. Then, within hours of the press conference, he stepped down, and Soulpepper’s board of directors announced they would be launching a formal investigation into his alleged misconduct. A few days later, they also severed ties with Leslie Lester. That same week, 280 past and present Soulpepper artists signed a letter calling on the board to acknowledge the harm the complainants and others had suffered. I reached out to Schultz several times asking for an interview, but he declined to speak to me. So did Lester. The Soulpepper board and executive team didn’t respond to interview requests. Schultz hasn’t filed a defence, but through his lawyer he denied all of the allegations outlined in the statement of claim, none of which have been proven in court. According to one loyal friend, Schultz and Lester have been avoiding going out in public and declining most invitations. “They’ve gotten to know who their real friends are,” the friend said. “Leslie is better equipped at dealing with the stress because she’s a manager by nature, and she practises mindfulness.” Another source close to the couple said they’re trying to figure out a way forward. “When I asked Leslie how Albert was, she said, ‘Well, you know he loves a problem. And now he’s got a big one.’ ” Noah Richler, who previously worked at Soulpepper but resigned due to artistic differences, told me he believes the charges against Schultz had been strategically trumped up. “The whole thing has far more to do with power and resentment than sexual battery,” he said. Although many friends and former colleagues echoed this view, Richler is the only one who went on the record. He also believes that there was a serious ethical failure in how the media handled his friend’s case. “I’m not victimblaming here. Believe me, I’ll be the first to admit that the way Albert wielded power within Soulpepper could be infuriating. But the court of public opinion has made extraordinary victims out of Albert and Leslie. That Fifth Estate piece was the single worst piece of publicly funded journalism I’ve ever seen.”
T he CBC ca me up w ith a list of power f u l men allegedly g uilt y of s e x u a l i m p r o p r i e t y. Then they set about f i nd i ng t heir Har vey 74 toronto life August 2018
Sher insists that all journalistic standards were rigorously met and that the story was firmly in the public interest. But while he might well have reserved judgment of Schultz, the Soulpepper board and the Canadian public did not. When I asked Sher whether the CBC would have devoted an entire episode of The Fifth Estate to the Schultz story a year ago—before Weinstein—he paused, momentarily lost for words. “Um, hmm, I don’t…know,” he said. Then, after some thought: “Maybe put that question another way. Would the women have come forward a year ago?” He has a point. After the CBC went big on the Schultz story, they disbanded their dream team. People had to go back to their regular jobs. Sher said they will continue to investigate claims of harassment, but it’s plain that the urgency is gone.
n the weeks following the Schultz scandal, the Canada Council for the Arts rescinded a planned fundraising campaign for Soulpepper. The company later announced that it is forecasting a deficit for 2018 in the face of “extraordinary one-time costs and revenue reductions.” It has also announced plans to carry out a comprehensive review of formal policies regarding codes of conduct, training and whistle-blowing policies. Since January, the company’s patrons have donated $650,000 to a transition campaign intended to smooth the way to a bright new future—one without Albert Schultz and Leslie Lester. It’s possible that’s money the company would have received anyway; some $5 million of Soulpepper’s annual budget comes from private donations. The bigger question is whether deep-pocketed patrons will continue to support the theatre without the man who once so thoroughly charmed them. In early May, after months of legal skirmishing, Albert Schultz, Soulpepper representatives, the four co-claimants and their respective legal teams all met in a downtown office building to commence mediation. The opposing legal teams prodded and bullied each other over the course of two tense 12-hour days. Neither party wanted to go to court. What the actors wanted most was some admission of wrongdoing. This would prove impossible. Schultz was steadfast in his denial of guilt. At the end of the second day, Alexi Wood asked all four claimants to write down the lowest possible dollar figure they would settle for. They were exhausted and desperate for the whole saga to be over. All sides signed non-disclosure agreements forbidding them from discussing the case publicly, but according to a source close to the case, the settlement covered their legal fees and a small payout “in the low thousands” for each woman. Each intends to donate the full amount to charity. Once the settlement was reached, the mood was sombre. No one popped champagne or planned a jubilant steak house dinner. Instead, the women said goodbye and went home to see their families. “There was no sense of victory,” says the source. “It was more like, ‘Thank God that’s over.’ ” Schultz still has one more battle to fight: he’s reportedly grappling with the Soulpepper board over the rights to the name of the company—the name his daughter supposedly dreamed up all those years ago. While reporting this piece, I asked Schultz’s friends and foes whether that story was true or apocryphal. No one seemed to know. ∫
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By Malcolm Johnston Photograph by Vanessa Heins
He wanted to be a basketball player. Or an HVAC installer. Or a mechanic. Anything but a runner. And yet somehow, the skinny kid from Markham is on the brink of becoming the fastest man on earth. The accidental ascent of Andre de GrAsse
A
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he 129A McCowan northbound bus runs from Scarborough Town Centre to Major Mackenzie Drive East in Markham, stopping at Highway 7, which is where Andre De Grasse hopped on in the winter of 2011. He was on his way to an auto repair shop, where he was learning to fix transmissions and do oil changes as part of his Grade 12 co-op placement. On the bus, he spotted a friend named Mikhile Jeremiah, who was wearing sprinting tights and track pants, and clutching track spikes. Jeremiah, a student at nearby Markville Secondary, explained that he was headed to practice at York University, and he invited De Grasse to watch him at an upcoming meet. De Grasse laughed. He thought track was dumb, and he said as much: “What, you’re just…running against people?” It was a nonstarter. Then Jeremiah mentioned that there would probably be girls there, and De Grasse’s stance softened. If he did show 78 toronto life August 2018
De Gra sse wa s a n ea sygoing kid who excelled in ever y spor t he tried. In 20 12, he joined his friend Mikhile Jeremia h at a tra ck meet, where a top coa ch spot ted him
up—if, De Grasse said—it would be to compete, not observe. Plus, he added, half-jokingly, he’d probably beat Jeremiah. “Okay,” Jeremiah said, “come prove it.” The York Central Regionals brings together the best runners from the area. Some are highly trained, and you can tell. They are breathtakingly fast, exploding out of the blocks and gradually, not instantly, rising to full height so as to cut through the air rather than push against it. At full speed, they’re a blur of limbs whirring at the edge of control. Scholarships to the very best colleges in the U.S. are on the line, so the stakes are high. De Grasse showed up in shiny blue basketball shorts and Converse sneakers, and walked around aimlessly until he found Jeremiah, who was surprised to see him—he’d assumed his friend wouldn’t show. Jeremiah delivered a quick primer on how to warm up and how the heats worked. De Grasse had no spikes; he lined up in his Cons for the 100 metres. He’d never touched starting blocks before, so when it was his turn to run, he removed them and half-crouched at the starting line like a shortstop, which made the race official laugh. The pistol sounded, and De Grasse exploded from his position, quickly hurtling to the head of the pack. His head bobbed wildly—he was staring skyward in one moment and at his toes the next—and his shoulders were hiked up awkwardly beside his ears. Somehow, he crossed the finish line in 10.91 seconds, roughly a second slower than Donovan Bailey’s world record in Atlanta and just under two seconds off the current record of 9.58, set by Usain Bolt. (Jeremiah, meanwhile, failed to advance.) It was a dazzling achievement, but no one much cared, except for a man in the crowd named Tony Sharpe, an Olympic bronze medallist for Canada in the 4 x 100 relay at the 1984 Games, and now the head of an elite track and field school in Pickering called Speed Academy. Most kids make a thumping or slapping sound when they run; DeGrasse produced a violent ripping sound, at once light and powerful, and Sharpe could hear the
photographs courtesy of andre de grasse
bove all else, Andre De Grasse is chill. It’s his go-to adjective, noun and verb. It describes his default setting and world view. Track and field is chill. So is practice. Sponsorship deals are chill. Getting invited to celebrity-laden parties with Cardi B on the mike? Very chill. His public beef with Usain Bolt: both chill and “all cool.” In the exceedingly chill world of Andre De Grasse, even bad things are chill: his long-estranged parents, Beverley and Alexander, are openly hostile toward each other, which he finds, you know, pretty chill. Sometimes he’ll work in an alternative, like “laid back” or “cool,” but what he really wants to say is chill. De Grasse lives in Phoenix with his girlfriend, the U.S. hurdler and sprinter Nia Ali. For a while, he had his own two-bedroom condo, but six months ago, he moved into her place nearby. He’d been spending a lot of time there anyway, so it made sense. Ali has a three-year-old son, Titus Maximus, from a previous relationship, and they all live together in a big house with a pool. De Grasse is comfortable around kids, and his relationship with Titus is a good one—he’s more uncle than stepfather in nature. Ali is a Philly native, blunt and excitable, and funny with assessments of her partner. When I asked her to describe their compatibility, I realized I should have known better. “We’re both pretty laid back, pretty chill,” she said. Lately, there is news: in late June, Ali and De Grasse welcomed their daughter, Yuri Zen. At just 23, De Grasse has become a father, a huge moment in a man’s life and probably an opportunity for reflection. I asked him how he felt about it. Your guess is correct. For an international celebrity, De Grasse is an odd fit. He owns three Olympic medals and stands on the edge of the most vaunted title in all of sports—Fastest Man in the World—yet he still drives a Honda Accord, collects Air Miles, saves his money religiously and is uncomfortable with the weight of fame. But the most peculiar thing about De Grasse is how blasé—how goddamn chill—he is about a sport essentially defined by pomp and bombast, by swaggerific entrances and Boltian arrow poses, by mountainous egos and cosmic score-settling (was there a better Canadian sporting moment in the ’90s than the Bailey versus Johnson showdown? Okay, yes, but not many). He is dead set on conquering the track world and assuming the mantle Usain Bolt recently gave up, a process he begins this summer in Toronto, and yet entirely non-emotive about it. But here’s the irony at the heart of Andre De Grasse, the secret that no one else seems to realize, at least not yet: De Grasse’s unflappable, quintessential chill is precisely what makes him so insanely good.
young man’s potential as much as he could see it. He introduced himself, handed over his business card, and asked him to tell his mother to give him a call.
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everley De Grasse was born in Trinidad and Tobago, the youngest of 10 kids. She was the fastest sprinter in her grade in elementary school, but jobs were scarce and her parents didn’t see much value in a career on the track, so in high school, she stopped running. At age 26, she followed her brother and sister to Canada in search of work and settled in Scarborough, where she met a Bajan man named Alexander Waithe. Andre was born on November 10, 1994, by which time she and Alex had already split. Beverley worked in a factory sorting mail before it arrived at Canada Post, making roughly $10 an hour, and lived in a small basement apartment near Finch and Midland, splitting the space and the $750 rent with a friend. Andre was a busy kid, brimming with energy. As a toddler, he would scamper up the stairs toward the street so often that Beverley had to install a gate to keep him penned in. In the evenings, she would take him to the field opposite their apartment and let him run—and he would, endlessly, gleefully. When Andre was four, he won the award for most goals in the season on his soccer team. Later, he discovered basketball, and when Beverley came through the door after work, he’d be standing there, shoes and uniform on, raring to go.
Andre was so gifted in everything he tried—baseball, soccer, basketball—that he found practice torturously dull. He was distractible and easily bored. It didn’t help that he was popular with just about everyone, so stretching became an opportunity to chat. So did warm-up laps, drills and cool-down. He was loose and imprecise with his form, and it drove Beverley crazy, but he always excelled when it mattered. Beverley certified as an early childhood educator through Seneca College, completing assignments on her lunch breaks and in the evenings. Andre would stay at his uncle’s place while she was in school, and he began to act out. Her program stopped during the summer, and one day Andre asked her if she was going to be around more often. When she said yes, he wrapped his arms around her legs, hugged her tight and wouldn’t let go. She soon landed a job in a daycare, one of three staff tending to 24 toddlers. Finances were tough on a single salary, but by late 2000, Beverley had saved enough to buy a modest two-bedroom semi in Markham. She and Andre did everything together—homework, vacations, delivering the paper (she would drive him, much to her annoyance). Andre would see his father on weekends, but Waithe had other kids by another woman, and he and Andre were never close. Beverley and Alexander were bitter enemies, but Andre didn’t get worked up about that, or anything, really. In the De Grasse household, there were no adolescent meltdowns or blowups, no shouting matches or door slams. “I’ve never seen this kid angry, you know?” says his mom. “Upset? No.” He was observant and pensive, always processing but rarely sharing his
de grasse thought track was dumB. “what, you’re just…running against people?” August 2018 toronto life 79
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e Grasse had never thought about track as a career, so when Tony Sharpe told him he had a gift, he was intrigued, albeit mildly. He asked his mom to call. Eventually, during her lunch break at the daycare, she did. “I’ve never seen such raw talent,” Sharpe said. “Your son has a chance to be special.” Beverley agreed to let Sharpe work with Andre on a few basics ahead of the allOntario competition, OFSAA, in Brockville. On the day of the meet, June 7, 2012, Beverley drove to watch him, assuming he wouldn’t make the finals and she’d be home
D e G ra s se wa s ra i sed by hi s mot her, B everley. W hen he sig ned hi s f ir s t b ig endor sem en t dea l, he boug h t her a BM W
by dinner. To her surprise, Andre finished second in his heat. He then placed fifth in the finals, with a wind-aided 10.62 (any time with a tailwind of over two metres per second gets an asterisk in the record books). The kid who’d started running one month earlier was now the fifth-fastest in the province. In July, De Grasse was invited to the Toronto International Track and Field Games, a high-profile meet featuring the fastest eight boys in Ontario. He beat them all, running a 10.59. His competitors stared, confounded: who is this guy? De Grasse didn’t know how the podium worked—he stood at one end, and the other medallists had to direct him to the middle. Still, he wasn’t enthused. He didn’t find sprinting exciting, especially compared to the razzle-dazzle of the NBA. He wasn’t enamoured of track’s stars or its history—he knew Donovan Bailey only from a blurb in a high school textbook. He also found track desperately lonely, with no teammates to strategize, commiserate or celebrate with. De Grasse was thinking about Durham College, a technical trade school in Oshawa, but Sharpe had different plans. He got on the phone to a few community colleges in the U.S. and told them about the most impressive young runner he’d ever seen— raw, undisciplined but unfathomably talented. Coffeyville, a
In 2015, he sIgneD a $15-mIllIon Deal wIth puma, the most lucratIve InItIal contract ever InkeD In the worlD of track 80 toronto life August 2018
photograph by vanessa heins
conclusions. Mostly, he found life amusing. When Andre would stay out past curfew, Beverley would call and chew him out over the phone. Instead of getting worked up, Andre would put her on speakerphone so his friends could hear, and they’d all crack up. He was similarly unshakable when it came to sports. If he made a mistake, he’d forget about it instantly. There was no selfflagellation over a dropped pop fly or turnover at the buzzer. Of all the sports he played, De Grasse was best at basketball, and he worshipped Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady and Allen Iverson, the brightest NBA stars at the time. The original “dribbling dino” Raptors logo was hand-painted on the wall above his bed. After Grade 9, he begged his mom to let him transfer to Vaughan Secondary, where he’d have played alongside future NBA star Andrew Wiggins, but that school was 30 minutes in the opposite direction of Beverley’s work, and she would have had to drive him, so she refused. Plan B, the nearby Bill Crothers Secondary, was an option, but Andre’s marks were too low. Beverley agreed to his third choice, nearby Milliken Mills, so De Grasse transferred for Grade 11, only to see his team fold a year later because the coaches’ contracts had expired. The timing was catastrophic. De Grasse was a polite, loyal, kind-hearted kid, but he was also impressionable, listless and often lazy, and without basketball, he was lost. At a time when most of his classmates were preparing their university applications, De Grasse began staying out late, partying, skipping school and ignoring his homework. His closest friends, Jermaine Chisholm and Zach Fox-Tapper—two soft-spoken jokesters who lived in the neighbourhood—played basketball for a travelling team and were often out of town, so De Grasse found a new circle, kids who smoked pot and dabbled in home theft. De Grasse was more of a hanger-on than a leader, but unless something changed, it seemed he’d only sink deeper into trouble. As the end of his Grade 12 year approached, De Grasse’s vice-principal stopped him in the hall and asked whether he’d applied to any colleges—his grades weren’t good enough for university. He hadn’t, so they filled out a few applications together and sent them off. The prospects weren’t great, but, as always, he was unperturbed. He had considered becoming a mechanic, or maybe a phys-ed teacher. His friend Mikhile Jeremiah was planning to get into the HVAC installation business, and De Grasse figured if all else failed, he could join him. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was something.
photograph by getty images
D e G ra s se won doub l e gol d a t t he Pa n A m Ga m es in Jul y 2 0 15
small junior college in Kansas, offered a partial scholarship, which would cover his tuition. It was a golden escape from suburban ennui, but De Grasse declined. He didn’t want to go all the way to Kansas, didn’t really want to run and wasn’t even convinced he was all that fast. He could beat some Ontario kids, yes, but college track was different. Beverley was exasperated. Finally, she told him he was going, and that was the end of it. A collection of dorms and buildings plunked down in the middle of Kansan farm country, Coffeyville was essentially removed from civilization. “He said he seen cows,” says Beverley, chuckling. “The closest mall was in Oklahoma, and he didn’t have a car, so he wasn’t going anywhere.” De Grasse earned a 3.5 GPA, surprised at how easy school was when he tried. On the track, he turned in stellar results, the best of which was a 9.96 at the National Junior College Athletic Association championships, his first sub-10-second result. Top-tier universities soon came calling, including the University of Southern California, which has an excellent track program in addition to a top-flight academic reputation, and they offered a scholarship. At Coffeyville, De Grasse was competing against a lower tier of college athletes; at USC, he’d be pitted against the very best. He accepted. His first big test was the NCAA Track and Field Championships in June 2015, where he faced off against the top sprinters in the U.S., including Trayvon Bromell, one of the fastest-rising stars in the sport and the consensus favourite. De Grasse, by comparison, was a total unknown—the ESPN announcer kept calling him “Degrawssi”—but he trounced Bromell with a windaided time of 9.75, and then won the 200 metres too, at 19.58. Suddenly, there was a new name in college track.
The next month, De Grasse returned home to Canada for the Pan Am Games, and won double gold in the 100 metres and 200 metres—the latter a Canadian record—at York University, across the street from the track where Sharpe had discovered him just three years earlier. De Grasse had decimated the college ranks and swept the Pan Ams, but he hadn’t yet faced off against the world’s best: specifically, Bolt—the fastest man on earth—and the American sprinter Justin Gatlin. In August, at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, he found himself warming up before the finals beside both men. Back home, Jeremiah, who was in the process of becoming an HVAC installer, was watching the race live on TV when his phone rang. It was De Grasse, and he wanted to know, if track didn’t work out, could he join Jeremiah in the HVAC business? “Dude! Just go run your race!” Jeremiah said. “We can work it out later.” De Grasse tied for third behind Bolt and Gatlin. He’d proven himself on the world stage. Suddenly, the calls from prospective agents and sponsors flooded in, all urging him to turn pro. It was an agonizing decision. Beverley had always prioritized education above all else, but she also recognized that the window for her son to capitalize on his skills was small. She made him promise he’d return to complete his degree, then gave her blessing. Nike, Adidas, New Balance, and the Chinese companies Xtep and Li-Ning entered the bidding, though the best offer came from Puma. The German company had built its brand on the back of Usain Bolt—their motto is Forever Faster—but Bolt was soon retiring, and the company needed a new ambassador. In De Grasse, Puma saw a sponsor’s dream: handsome, high cheekbones, long lashes, bedroom eyes, a squeaky-clean image, a mama’s boy in the Horatio Alger mould. They offered De Grasse $15 million (Cdn.) over 10 years, with performance incentives built in that could double it, and agreed to cover the cost of his final semester at USC. In November 2015, he signed the deal, the most lucrative initial contract ever signed in the world of track. For a kid from a lower-income, single-parent household, the moment was stunning. It was a chance to secure his financial future. “I was like, is this real? Did this just happen? Did I just do that?” says De Grasse. He didn’t buy anything for himself—he already had his trusty Honda Accord—but he bought his mom a shiny black BMW X6 for her birthday and set her up for retirement. He also asked her to quit her job, and today gives her a regular stipend so she doesn’t have to worry about finances. She had sacrificed so much while he was a kid. This was his way of saying thank you.
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nce the contract was signed, De Grasse moved from L.A. to Phoenix to join the elite track school Altis in Paradise Valley. His new coach, Stu McMillan, a straight-talking Brit who grew up in Calgary, realized how poorly De Grasse understood the finer concepts of the sport. Experienced runners know how to blend the various stages of a race—start, acceleration, top speed—and how to play to their strengths. It appeared De Grasse had been operating mostly on instinct. In a sense, that was exciting: the kid had such freakish natural ability that a few tweaks could unlock huge potential. McMillan began by focusing on De Grasse’s assets. As opposed to a powerhouse body like Bolt’s or Bailey’s, his was lean but supernaturally elastic. His gait was highly efficient, meaning he could generate an incredible amount of force with each millisecond of ground contact. His stride was impressively elongated—full August 2018 toronto life 81
extension forward and then nearly touching his heels to his butt on the recoil—and he had enough co-ordination to put the entire combination together and repeat it at a high rate. Plus, he had a killer instinct, at least when it mattered. During practice, he’d often get whooped by his training partners, especially in the early going, then go out and decimate them once it was for keeps. There were maybe 30 athletes present at the Altis track in Phoenix when I visited this past February. Any of them could have graced the cover of Muscle and Fitness magazine, save for the sparrow-light and sinewy Canadian superstar in their midst. Each of the athletes was attentively honing some element of his or her craft, and it was surprisingly silent but for the occasional grrraaghh of a deep, final exertion, or a coach’s bark of encouragement. Amid the quiet intensity, De Grasse did warm-ups, his arms flopping lazily at his sides as he did kicks, his general expression somewhere between amusement and benign neutrality—practised or pure, I’m not sure. In a world of track obsessives, De Grasse admits he is a different animal. He wasn’t raised in that milieu, and never dreamed of standing on the podium or vanquishing a Bolt or a Gatlin. In fact, away from the track, De Grasse hardly thinks about running. Once he’s in the blocks, it’s all fire and intensity and will to win, but in the lead-up to a big meet, he’s more likely to be thinking about last night’s Raptors game (still his favourite team) or the latest Fast and the Furious movie (a cherished franchise), so he isn’t prone to psyching himself out. His girlfriend, Nia Ali, puts it another way: “He can so easily turn his panic button off. That’s a good thing to have, in track, in life, in anything.” The skill isn’t so much mental toughness as mental indifference, but hey, it works. During my visit to the Altis track, one of De Grasse’s coaches told me that the game plan was to improve his start and acceleration phases enough so that he’s at least “in contact” with the field after the halfway point, because that’s where De Grasse typically hits max speed. After that, few others can keep pace. Seven months after he arrived in Phoenix, that idea was put to the test at the Rio Olympics. McMillan knew that De Grasse’s best asset relative to Bolt was his youth. At the time, Bolt was
29 and De Grasse only 21, which meant, at least in theory, he’d be able to recuperate faster. During the 200-metre semi-final, the two tore out to a commanding lead, Bolt in front, De Grasse a step behind. By the halfway mark, they had such a lead on the rest of the field that Bolt began to slow in order to conserve his energy for the upcoming final. But De Grasse didn’t let up; instead, as planned, he accelerated. Bolt glanced over his right shoulder, his eyes widening as he saw De Grasse pulling even. Bolt sped up. So did De Grasse. De Grasse flashed a smile, locking eyes with Bolt, then exerted a final burst. As Bolt crossed the line, first by two one-hundredths of a second, he grinned and wagged his finger at the young upstart—dozens of cameras clicked, capturing the moment. Bolt glanced nervously at the scoreboard and, once he determined that he had won, threw an arm around De Grasse, and they walked back to the line together. The world was smitten. “This brotherhood continues!” exclaimed a CBC announcer. “They’ve been knuckling and high-fiving all week, and this is more of the same—‘Wait up for me, big brother!’ ” added the co-host. The U.K. Telegraph weighed in on the sweetness and light: “Usain Bolt and Andre De Grasse’s Bromance Continues to Blossom Before World’s Eyes at Rio Olympics.” This was not, in fact, the case. There was no kinship, no warm feelings. Bolt felt disrespected and annoyed by De Grasse, and as they walked, he leaned in and chastised him. He knew that De Grasse’s gambit was calculated. And for a moment, it looked like it might work: according to McMillan, Bolt was seen being carted around in a wheelchair later that day, presumably wracked with fatigue or cramps, only to recover enough to beat De Grasse by a sliver in the 100-metre finals (De Grasse came third) and then again in the 200-metre (second). The damage, however, was done. When De Grasse went over to offer his congratulations, he extended a hand, and Bolt seemed to brush it away. In the aftermath, Bolt, despite having won triple gold, carried on with his public sulk tour. After De Grasse told an interviewer that he felt like he could topple the sport’s reigning champ, Bolt told another interviewer that he’d never again anoint an heir apparent—“the last one disrespected me”—and in July dumped De Grasse from his Diamond League meet. Columnists churned out think pieces about the friction at the centre of the track world. De Grasse, now a triple Olympic medallist, says he didn’t really care. He had executed a plan and figured Bolt was simply responding with his own gamesmanship. “I think he still liked that moment, it made us both look good, with both of us smiling. But you got to put on a little front, too,” he says. “When you’re the boss, you’ve got to be the boss.”
De G ra s se’s pub li c feu d w i t h Us a in B ol t a t t he 2 0 16 Rio O l y mp i c s ma d e in t erna t iona l new s
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photographs by getty images
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eud or no feud, Puma loved the moment. In one viral snapshot, their superstar was passing the baton, and their multimillion-dollar investment was proving to be a steal. For De Grasse, it was a watershed moment, a stellar performance under the brightest lights. Other sponsorship opportunities came rolling in, from PwC, Gatorade, Lasik MD, Pizza Pizza, Gillette, Real Canadian Superstore, and others. The City of Markham named a street after him. He modelled formalwear for the Harry Rosen magazine, appeared onstage at WE Day alongside Penny Oleksiak before a stadium full of shrieking tweens, attended the premiere of a Drake-produced documentary on Vince Carter during TIFF and presented an award at a Right to Play event. Even Mom got in on the act, partnering with the Jamaican packaged food company GraceKennedy to share her tips on jerk chicken and other dishes.
D e G ra s se a nd hi s g irl fri end, Nia A li ( p i c t ur ed ), wel comed t heir da ug h t er, Yuri Zen D e G ra s se, in la t e June
After the Olympics, De Grasse returned to USC to complete his sociology degree, fulfilling the promise he’d made to his mom. De Grasse trained at the school, working track sessions around his class schedule, though he couldn’t compete without violating NCAA rules. USC, realizing they had a star in their midst, honoured his scholarship anyway. He earned a 3.2 GPA and, the following May, delivered the graduation address to the school’s student athletes. Leaving track in the midst of such a run of success was a risk—he might get injured, lose his hard-earned fitness—but when he returned, he quickly reasserted his dominance. He went undefeated in four major meets leading up to the world championships, capped by a wind-aided 9.69 at a competition in Stockholm. De Grasse was finding he belonged on the track, at long last, and he was growing to love it, too. What made the transition to the professional circuit easier was that Ali was at many of his meets. They had both signed with the same agent, Paul Doyle, and because they competed in the same events, were often on the same schedule. They joked around, Ali often poking fun at De Grasse for his innocent Canadian ways. Finally, at a Diamond League meet in Birmingham, U.K., Ali worked up the courage to invite him out. Over Caribbean food, they hit it off, and they began FaceTiming each other regularly. Before long, they’d established a relationship. For De Grasse, life was good, personally and professionally. He was in the best shape of his life and posting record times. Then, just before the 2017 World Championships in London, calamity struck. During a light warm-up, De Grasse strained his hamstring. It was a grade-two tear on a three-grade scale, so hardly career threatening, but it meant he missed out on his last shot at defeating Bolt before he retired. De Grasse flew to Germany to see a specialist and watched the finals from a hotel room, heartbroken. Bolt finished third. De Grasse used the time off to think about his future. The injury was a freak accident, but he couldn’t help but wonder whether the steady stream of appearances and sponsorship commitments had played a role, however small, by too frequently
taking him away from his training. “He doesn’t know if he wants to be a full-fledged celebrity or just a regular guy,” says his friend Zach Fox-Tapper. “We tell him if he has time off, he should go be seen, be in the public eye. Especially outside of the Olympics, people will forget who you are.” But De Grasse’s default setting is to be low-profile. For years, even after making it big, he’d visit his mom and sleep in his tiny bedroom (she painted over his Raptors logo last year; he was devastated). He might order in some food and catch up with friends. If he goes out, it’s to a Joey restaurant near his place or Cactus Club downtown. In Phoenix, he and Ali take Titus to the aquarium, or horseback riding. Celebrity has its perks, but privacy isn’t one of them. During a recent visit to Toronto, Ali wanted to take Titus to the Toronto Zoo. De Grasse quickly nixed the idea, fearing they’d be mobbed by fans. Later, he took Ali to a Jays game. As they walked to their seats, De Grasse was inundated with excited fans, all asking for autographs. Ali had known her boyfriend was a big deal, but not to what extent. (To date, they still haven’t been to the zoo.) In the worst cases, people try to extract time, attention, endorsements or money from him. Friends of friends, grade school classmates and other long-lost acquaintances regularly emerge, first inflating their connection, then asking him to post a song or wear a clothing line, then getting uppity when he politely declines. “I only get pissed off when people try to take advantage of me,” he says. “Because people don’t realize I see what they’re doing because I’m so chill. That’s the only time I get annoyed. But I’m not going to turn up my heartbeat. I’ll just ignore you.” Fortunately, those negative interactions are in the vast minority. During a recent visit home, De Grasse and a few friends went to play pickup basketball at the Markham YMCA. A swooping glass wall encircles the court, and within minutes, word had spread that De Grasse was in the building. Suddenly, the perimeter was chockablock with spectators. Passersby who weren’t Y members began pouring in to watch their local hero play, and staff eventually let them through without paying admission. After the games wrapped up—they went undefeated—De Grasse spent half an hour cheerfully signing autographs. Interactions like those prompted him to start the Andre De Grasse Family Foundation, as a way to help kids like him, talented but wayward, do productive things. The foundation’s first project is called the Future Champions Fund, which helps connect promising athletes with high-level coaching and academic consulting, so that more Canadian kids can follow De Grasse’s path. He also started an annual Markham basketball tournament—the Andre De Grasse Holiday Classic—as a way to pay it forward. For all of his commitments and projects, however, priority one is to return to form on the track. So far, De Grasse has had a slow re-entry to the world of competition following his injury. In April, he came fourth at the Drake Relays in Iowa; in May, eighth at the Diamond League in Shanghai; in June, third at the Harry Jerome track meet in B.C. A BBC announcer said he wasn’t convinced De Grasse really was the future of the sport. Donovan Bailey took it upon himself to write a piece for the CBC entitled, “Andre De Grasse Is Still the Next Great Sprinter.” De Grasse is eager to
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reclaim his form, to show his country and city, friends and family that he’s still the heir apparent. To that end, he has August 10 circled on his calendar, which is the date of Track and Field in the 6ix, an official NACAC event held at Varsity Stadium that will feature top competition from North America, Central America and the Caribbean. De Grasse is literally the poster boy—the event logo is his silhouette—and the meet will present a chance at redemption. It’s also an opportunity to show his Toronto love and, if all goes to plan, emerge with a gold.
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his off-season, he trained with the Toronto event in mind. It helps his focus that in Phoenix, he’s essentially anonymous, except at the airport, where Canadian snowbirds line up for autographs, which he’s happy to give. Often, Americans will say, “You look familiar.” De Grasse always responds the same way: “Oh, no way. You must be thinking of someone else.” De Grasse comes home frequently—more so now that he has his green card—and he and his mom have finally upgraded to a new house, on a quiet suburban street, large enough to accommodate them both—plus Ali, Titus and the baby—but still relatively modest. Today, as De Grasse trains, it’s in a different context. He’s no longer the underdog. Instead, he’s the target, the one most opponents build their race plans around. The expectations for De Grasse are higher, and the burden, too. The 2020 Olympics are in Tokyo, and there isn’t a day when De Grasse doesn’t think about them, either directly or indirectly. At 23, he’s still young, but sprinters typically get three cracks at the podium
before joints get creaky and energy reserves turn shallow. His time, whether he knows it or not, is now. On my last day in Phoenix, De Grasse played pickup basketball with a couple of friends. He’d been invited to the NBA All-Star weekend in L.A., to play in the celebrity game, and he was keen to get some practice in. His coaches were Katie Nolan of ESPN and the former NBA star Paul Pierce. Jamie Foxx and Common were his teammates; Justin Bieber, Michael B. Jordan and NBA Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady—a childhood idol—were on the opposing side. De Grasse had also been invited to the GQ party, with a couple of plus-ones for his buddies. They were thrilled about that, giggling like boys, which, really, they are. A major topic of discussion was wardrobe: surely De Grasse should wear something splashy and expensive to make a statement. One friend had a line on a technicolour Versace jacket that retailed for $5,000. De Grasse wasn’t sold. It was something a big-name athlete like Usain Bolt—bold, flashy, braggadocious—might wear, and it seemed like De Grasse, preternaturally chill, was testing the fit. When I left, they were playing H-O-R-S-E, laughing, cajoling, talking considerable trash. It was the first time I’d seen him so comfortable, and it was no surprise the moment involved basketball. If you squinted, you could see that kid in the Milliken Mills gym working on his crossover. A few days later, after he’d dropped 17 points and six rebounds during the All-Star Game, I checked his Instagram feed. He’d attended the GQ party and posted a photo of himself on the red carpet outside. Apparently he’d made a decision, both sartorial and philosophical. In the photo, he was wearing a black shirt and simple black-and-grey pants. Beneath it, a pithy, profound caption: “Keep It Simple.” ∫
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84 toronto life August 2018
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Slawko Klymkiw, CEO, CFC, and Rob Oliphant, M.P., Don Valley West
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Offshore Holdings
How an architect turned a private island in Georgian Bay into a modernist family retreat
photography by derek shapton
by gr a h a m s l augh t e r
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August 2018 toronto life 87
As a boy, John Stark loved spending summers swimming in Georgian Bay, off his family’s private island. And so, when an island 12 kilometres from his parents’ place hit the market in 1978, he pounced. The two-acre chunk of windbent pines and granite came with three old cottages—but John, the president of Stark Architects Inc., wanted to create something of his own. A few years later, he gutted the main structure and ferried some construction materials over from the mainland. He was able to complete a rebuild in six weeks. The result is a glass-lined retreat that blends perfectly with its natural surroundings, to the extent that it’s difficult to spot from the water. He eventually updated the island’s other two buildings as well. One of them is now a master bedroom suite for him and his wife, Chris, complete with an outdoor shower; the other is a three-bedroom guest cottage, where their children and grandchildren stay when they visit. Island life is not without its challenges. Massasauga rattlesnakes and roving black bears occasionally swim over from the mainland, and the place is susceptible to lightning strikes (one set the guest cottage ablaze). When John and Chris run out of supplies, they have to take a boat to the mainland and then drive to Parry Sound, 25 minutes away. But there are enormous upsides: strong winds off the water make it hard for mosquitoes to spawn, and those same gusts spin the island’s wind turbine, powering the compound. The deep waters around the island are perfect for diving and for family kayak outings. At 72, John is still passionate about cottages, and he frequently designs them for clients of his firm. He works from his own cottage’s glassed-in office, where, thanks to the wraparound windows, he can watch the sunset in the west and the moonrise in the east. 88 toronto life August 2018
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1 The backsplash, designed by Dano Harris, an Ontario craftsman, is a slab of raw steel with a coating of wax, meant to gradually weather over time. The ceiling is made of pine. John doesn’t stain wood unless absolutely necessary, and so the kitchen island, installed this year, is au naturel.
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2 The nine-footlong banquet table, made in Quebec by artisan Stephan Gagnon, has enough room for the extended family. 3 The vegetation on the island is mostly lichen, wildflowers and tall grasses.
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4 The master cabin’s outdoor shower has a natural stone floor. Two wooden walls provide some privacy.
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5 A telescope in the living room looks out onto the water, which is often busy with cruise ships and pleasure craft. Once, John spotted a capsized boat and helped rescue a distressed sailor.
The master cabin has pine floorboards and a set of windows in a corner. There’s a propane stove for cool fall nights. The wishbone chairs are from Structube.
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August 2018 toronto life 89
The Chase
Young Family, Tight Budget A search for a $250,000 vacation home in Haliburton County by c a rol i n e a k sic h The buyers: Daniela Soares, a 38-year-old physiotherapist; Davide Gianforcaro, a 39-year-old architect; and their two daughters, Clara, 4, and Natalia, 6. The sTory: Before they had kids, Daniela and Davide hadn’t considered buying a cottage. They preferred camping. “We enjoyed being nomadic,” Davide says. “But once we had kids that changed—we wanted a place to create family memories.” Last spring, they began the hunt for a three-bedroom getaway with a sunny southern exposure, ideally on a lake that hadn’t been overdeveloped. With a $250,000 budget, the couple began looking around Haliburton County, which they figured would be more affordable than Muskoka. They soon learned that the area’s real estate market is anything but laid back.
South Lake Minden
OPTION 2
Drag Lake Dysart
THE BUY
Big guLL Lake North Frontenac
Listed at $249,900
Listed at $319,000
Listed at $299,900
Sold for $266,000
Sold for $375,000
Sold for $305,000
Davide and Daniela found this area more populated than they would have liked. As Davide put it at the time: “Tom Thomson would never paint this place.” But the three-bedroom property was, at least, relatively private. Plus, the cottage was near the water, with a large deck overlooking the lake. They offered $12,000 over asking, but there were two other bidders in the running. The couple gave up without a fight. “In hindsight, we’re actually happy we lost out,” Davide says. They decided to increase their budget to $300,000.
When Davide and Daniela saw this vinylsided, three-bedroom cottage, they thought the asking price was way too high. There was no septic tank or shower, and the neighbouring mega-cottage seemed like an Airbnb party pad waiting to happen. Even so, they liked the proximity to Haliburton, and the shallow waterfront would have been great for their girls, who hadn’t yet learned to swim. They considered making a lowball bid but thought the better of it. And then, to their surprise, the property sold for almost $60,000 over asking.
They were charmed by this three-bedroom 1970s bungalow. The staggered skillion roof allowed for a row of windows, which flooded the cottage with light. The property was south-facing, handsomely treed and located on a secluded peninsula. The boathouse was rotting away—but, they reasoned, at least they wouldn’t need to apply for a permit to build one from scratch. Soon after viewing the place, they put in an offer for slightly over the list price. The seller accepted and even agreed to throw in some furniture, including bunk beds for the kids.
90 toronto life August 2018
portrait by erin leydon
OPTION 1
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New wines. Every other Saturday. THIS IS VINTAGES
Vintages is the only shop in town to offer a limited release of 100+ new wines bi-weekly. UNCORK SOMETHING GREAT IN VINTAGES TODAY.
photograph by daniel neuhaus
primer
20 REASONS TO RAISE A PINT
Breweries have taken up residence in every corner of town, so we sipped our way across the city in search of the most refreshing bottles, growlers and crowlers the booming scene has to offer by a l e x b a l di n ge r a n d r e be c c a f l e m i n g August 2018 toronto life 93
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20 reasons to raise a pint
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beCause having a Pint heRe feels like hoMe Muddy york brewing Co.
22 CrAnfield rd., 416-619-7819
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from the outside, Muddy York looks like a typical East York bungalow, albeit with a handful of picnic tables on the front lawn for imbibers. Inside, too, there’s a mid-century living room vibe to this rustic taproom, with mismatched wooden tables, chairs and church pews, all of which make it a comfortable place for a leisurely hang. The best beers here are meant to be sipped, not slammed. Our go-to is a pint of the mildly smoky Muddy yoRk PoRteR, which manages to look dark and taste light, and a plan to stay a while.
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Because these are some of the most deliciously nuanced beers we’ve ever tried
this bloordale village brewery’s genre-bending wine-beer hybrids taste like pure genius in a glass. Yes, burdock brewery 1184 Bloor St. W., the three-year-old establishment co-owned by Jason Stein 416-546-4033 and Matthew Park also makes inventive pilsners and saisons and Berliner weisses, which are always available, but it’s the inspired small-batch creations we’re talking about here—like the Ruby, a gorgeous, gem-coloured blend of saisons aged in barrels with sour cherries and cabernet franc skins, and blended with riesling from Ontario’s Pearl Morrisette winery. It’s the perfect showcase for the brewery’s terroir-driven approach to beermaking. (Pro tip: they also bake wonderfully crusty sourdough breads, which can be purchased at the bottle shop.)
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Because this place gave Kensington the one thing it was missing kensington brewing Co.
299 AuguStA Ave., 647-401-6552
You already hit Kensington for bread from Blackbird, meat from Sanagan’s and fish from Hooked, so it’s about time the market had its own go-to source for fresh beer, too. Just follow the malty aroma to Augusta Avenue, where the not-quite-year-old brewery is complementing its flagship FishEYE-PA, all bitter and hoppy, with watermelonjuiced wheat beers, sour ales, classic lagers and the occasional Belgian saison seasoned with Sichuan peppercorns.
photographs: burdock, rainhard, godspeed by daniel neuhaus; muddy york, saulter by dave gillespie
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BEcAUSE OF THESE BRAndnEW BREWInG GIZMOS Rainhard Brewing co.
100 SymeS rd., unit 108, 416-763-2337
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Because this taproom is a little slice of country in the big city
Saulter Street Brewery
31 SAulter St., unit 1, 416-463-9379
Tucked away behind a row of houses on a dead-end street just off Queen East, Saulter is the east end’s best-kept beer secret. The brewery’s cherry-red barn doors open to a taproom full of happy beer drinkers, some with babes-in-arms (there’s plenty of stroller parking) or pups on leashes (it doesn’t get more dog friendly than this). The thing to get here is the flagship RIVERSIDE COPPER PILSNER, a crushable Czech-style brew that’s a little bit malty, a little bit spicy and entirely refreshing.
only three years old, the Stockyards’ first brewery has already tripled its capacity to produce the good stuff. The folks at Rainhard are also the proud owners of two brand-new Italianmade foeders (pronounced “fooders”), ginormous oak barrels used by brewers to ferment beer, especially sour, funky beer, over months and even years. While we wait for their first foeder beer to hit the menu, the Kapow! and Armed ’N Citra IPAs are core favourites, and it’s worth trying something from the RAGE And LOvE line of sours, including a super-fruity, mouth-puckering double dry-hopped sour made with plum and cardamom.
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Because it’s your favourite brewer’s favourite new brewery
like chefs who find out about a city’s best restau242 Coxwell Ave., rants before the rest of us, 416-551-2282 local brewers are obsessed with Godspeed. The reason? “Refined simplicity,” which is how brewer Luc “Bim” Lafontaine describes his brewing philosophy. He’s a legend from his days at Montreal’s acclaimed Dieu du Ciel! brewery, and at his izakaya-inspired Little India brewpub (how Toronto is that?) he’s making exceptionally consistent beers that purists can’t resist. Look no further than the OTSUKARESAMA Dortmunder lager, a rarely seen expression of a style once popular with German coal miners. It’s a super-crisp, thirstquenching beer with a hint of bite, and it pairs perfectly with bites of karaage chicken or a pork katsu sando from the Japanese kitchen. Godspeed Brewery
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20 reasons to raise a pint
Because we can’t get enough Laser Show
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Because you can learn to make these amazingly juicy beers at home
halo Brewery
247 Wallace ave., 416-606-7778
Techie-turned-brewer Callum Hay takes traditional beers and adds spin with ingredients like rose hips, sarsaparilla, tangerine and prickly pear. If you like what you drink—and if you’re an aspiring or experienced home brewer—all of Halo’s recipes can be found on their website. If not, a visit to the taproom for a pint of something super juicy, sour or hoppy is in order. If and when it’s available, we recommend ShapeShifter, a sour IPA that’s all kinds of fruity with just the right amount of tart.
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BeCaUse IT’s The GraNDDaDDY oF CraFT Beer IN ToroNTo Great Lakes Brewery
30 Queen elizabeth blvD., 416-225-4510
they’re not located in a “trendy” neighbourhood, and you won’t find any reclaimed barnboard or taxidermy in the taproom, but Etobicoke’s Great Lakes Brewery has been making the good stuff since 1987— when some of today’s most dedicated craft beer drinkers were nursing a whole different kind of bottle. Owner Peter Bulut Jr. and brewer Mike Lackey are still at it today, and their CaNUCK PaLe aLe is as good as it gets around here. Pay a visit to their sweet new patio and treat yourself to a pre- or postCostco-trip pint.
photographs: left field, halo by daniel neuhaus; great lakes courtesy of great lakes brewery
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toronto’s unapologetically baseballobsessed brewery (it’s even got a dog named 36 Wagstaff Dr., Wrigley) has had plenty of hits since it opened 647-346-5001 in 2013, but it really knocked it out of the park with its pitch-perfect rendition of the hazy New England-style IPA that has stolen the craft beer world’s attention in recent years. Laser show—a term coined by Dustin Pedroia of the Boston Red Sox for when a batter has a big game—smells like tropical fruit juice and looks like sunshine in the glass. With the way the Jays are playing, it’s the closest thing to baseball-related joy we’re likely to taste this season. Left Field Brewery
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Because they were the First to Bring Brewing Back to the Junction indie alehouse
2876 DunDaS St. W., 416-760-9691
believe it or not, the Junction was dry from 1904 until twofreaking-thousand. But the neighbourhood is now home to five breweries, and Indie Alehouse has been plying the west end with beer for the last six years. They’re at their best when they’re experimenting. Keep an eye out for Fates and Furies, a rotating set of 12 barrel-aged brews, like Sunkicked, an imperial wit made with blood oranges in cognac and tequila barrels, and blended for a sour start and biscuity finish. You might as well stay for a meal—the burgers are killer.
Because this brewery kick-started a neighbourhood metamorphosis
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industrial old Geary Avenue has become one of Toronto’s most interesting food strips, complete with a lineup-besieged pasta 165 geary ave., joint, a sleek hummus café and a distillery. 647-628-6062 But what preceded them all was this brewery and taproom run by brothers Dustin and Brayden Jones. A perch on the corner patio is an ideal midpoint on a neighbourhood food crawl and the perfect place to sip a shumei, a dank-smelling West Coast IPA that’s been part of the brewery’s rotation since day one. Blood Brothers Brewing
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Because they’re freakishly committed to brewing it old-school
Folly Brewing
photographs by daniel neuhaus
928 College St., 416-533-7272
Toronto’s beer scene has plenty of cutting-edge newcomers, so it’s refreshing to also have at least one that’s happily obsessed with the olden days. That’s just how they brew things here in Little Portugal, drawing influences from Belgian and Old World beers that have been brewed since the Middle Ages. The Sunny PlaceS sour pale ale is more contemporary but relies on a centuriesold variety of Norwegian yeast called kveik that gives it a time-tested tang.
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20 reasons to raise a pint
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BecauSe they make traSh pandaS look good Bandit Brewery
2125 dundaS St. W., 647-348-1002
Because one of their newest beers is like air conditioning in a glass
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Because the beer actually makes us want to hang out on Eastern Avenue
Shacklands Brewing
rorschach Brewing co.
100 SymeS Rd., no. 101, 416-763-2424
don’t come to Shacklands looking for a lager or an IPA—you won’t find any. They pour only Belgian-style brews: farmhouse ales, saisons, tripels and dubbels. Everything here is downright funky. The Wit SaiSon, one of their flagship beers, has all the nice spice of a wit, plus the pepper of a saison. Whatever you choose, it comes with a side of history: the brewery is named for an old Stockyards community of temporary housing built by immigrant workers for their families in the early 1900s, and the logo was inspired by Lawren Harris’s “January Thaw, Edge of Town,” which the Group of Seven artist painted here in 1921. Even if history’s not your bag, you’ll get a kick out of co-owner Dave Watts’s Shelf of Everything, stocked with kitschy knickknacks from lava lamps to taxidermied puffer fish.
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BecauSe of their Belgian-Style BreWS (and hiStory leSSonS)
1001 eaSteRn ave., 416-901-3233
There may be a wastewater treatment plant ever so slightly to the east, but not even that can stop us from thirsting for pints on this spacious tree-lined patio. The house-brewed beer list is one of the city’s largest, and few of the offerings are predictable or safe. The MAlEvolEnt BEnEvolEncE HAwAiiAn stout is an 11 per cent ABV coconut-packed pour that will at least temporarily make you feel like you’re mid-vacation on the Big Island, not in this slice of east Toronto.
photographs: radical road, rorschach by dave gillespie; shacklands, bandit by daniel neuhaus
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while nothing’s better than a cold beer on a hot summer day, not all beers are 1177 Queen St. e., created equal when it comes 647-794-7909 to beating the heat. Light, low-alcohol kölsches are always a reliable thirst quencher, and this Queen East brewery has devised an ingenious way to up the cooling factor of their version even higher, infusing their cucumBer-mint kÖlSch with a hit of crisp, herbal freshness to create one of the most sweat-slaying sips in the city. radical road Brewing co.
this dundas west brewery, co-owned by Stephane Dubois and Shehzad Hamza, pairs Toronto’s notorious masked mascot with beer—and that’s enough to make rascally racoons cute instead of infuriating. Fortunately, the beer is good too, especially the Wizard of goSe, a sour brew made with coriander, sea salt and apricot. It goes best with a seat on Bandit’s sun-soaked front patio (but a bowl of the beer-battered cheese curds wouldn’t hurt either).
20 reasons to raise a pint
BeCause we like our Beer Best in gigantiC Cans eastbound Brewing Co.
700 Queen St. e., 416-901-1299
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Because they’re putting Toronto’s craft brewing scene on the global map
despite the ongoing local Bellwoods Brewery brewing boom, there’s work to be 124 OSSingtOn Ave., done when it comes to burnishing 416-535-4586 Toronto’s brewing cred beyond our borders. This Ossington icon is changing that. The beers, such as Jelly king, a sour ale conditioned in a variety of different seasonal flavours, routinely make special appearances on tap lists and at festivals down south. Also, the brewery’s annual Witchstock Festival, held at its Hafis Road production facility, has practically become a beer diplomacy summit, drawing some of the most popular craft breweries in the world.
Because of their monthly one-offs
henderson Brewing Co.
128A SteRling Rd., 416-863-8822
If you didn’t have a good reason to stroll, run or cycle the West Toronto Railpath before, you do now. Henderson Brewing Co., just steps from the trail in the Junction Triangle, is the best excuse to do something active…so you can cool off with a beer. There are some solid mainstays—Food Truck blond and Henderson’s Best amber, to name a couple—but we especially like the Ides Of series, a new monthly brew that’s often an ode to Toronto (like the End of Honesty lager, a shout-out to Honest Ed’s). One of the most recent recipes, June’s Hi-Five radler (blond ale plus tangerine, pineapple, passion fruit and lime juices) is a tropical treat dedicated to active drinkers everywhere.
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BeCause where else Can you drink Beer in a garBage inCinerator? Junction Craft Brewing 150 SymeS Rd., 416-766-1616
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and tuck into things like panko-crusted cod cake sandwiches. Others stop by for beer to go, some of it in crowlers, 32-ounce cans that fit better into a bike basket or backpack than their breakable cousin, the growler (and they keep beer fresher, too). They’re the perfect size for sharing. Or not. You do you.
junction craft, one of the west end’s longest-running breweries, is located in the Destructor, a gorgeous art deco building that burned trash from 1934 until the ’70s. While they’ve made almost 125 beers since opening in 2011, we still like their first, ConduCtor’s, the best. The smooth amber ale is a beer for all seasons, but there are always at least 15 others being poured at the same time. Grab a seat, order something from the electronic board that flashes beer names instead of train times, and watch people practising parkour through the windows of the neighbouring Monkey Vault.
photographs by daniel neuhaus; eastbound by dave gillespie
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quietly living in the shadow of Queen East’s revamped Broadview Hotel, Eastbound has quickly turned into a new local. Run by former Mill Street brewer Dave Lee and his wife, chef Tara Lee, it’s now the go-to for Riverside residents to sip pints (each of the pale ales in the Fresh start series is A-plus)
u o Y k Than In one night: over 70 chefs; 30 beverage purveyors; 60 sponsors; 400 volunteers and 1,500 guests came together to raise enough to provide food for 1.9 million meals. Thank you for feeding hungry children, adults and seniors in our city through food rescue. To learn more about the work of Second Harvest, please visit secondharvest.ca.
Photo credit: Maria Gagliardi
where to e at now
the city’s best new restaur ants
the critic
Yonge and Hungry At Constantine, chef Craig Harding brings trendy sharable plates to a new hotel on a formerly sketchy stretch of Yonge Street
In the last few years, new condo towers have all but scrubbed clean Yonge Street’s legendary sleaze—its strip clubs and XXX video warrens— from College to Bloor. The latest makeover was a 1950s brick tower on Charles Street, a dingy Comfort Inn that was recently converted into a boutique hotel called the Anndore House. Outside, it’s been painted a gunmetal black that’s both tasteful and severe. Inside, there’s a café, a compact bar with dimly lit corners perfect for covert meetings, and Constantine, a new Mediterranean kitchen run by Craig Harding, of the perpetually wait-listed Dundas West spots La Palma and Campagnolo. The restaurant is the most polished thing to come to this stretch of Yonge since the Stanley Cup. Cooking at a hotel restaurant is now a coveted gig: chefs appreciate the profile boost, as well as having the costs of the facilities and upkeep covered, as is usually the case, by the hotel owners. To stand out, properties like the Anndore House, the east end’s Broadview Hotel and Charles Khabouth’s Bisha want notable chefs to fill seats with more than just hotel guests. Chefs like Harding, whose menu at Constantine manages to combine everything trendy: Cal-Ital brightness, Levantine spicing, vegetable-forward entrées and a kitchen built around a crackling open-fire grill. Aside from the obligatory hotel-menu burger (Harding serves his with a salad of Israeli couscous and charred radicchio), it’s all designed to be shared, which always leads to a game of finding table space for half-finished plates and serving spoons. 102 toronto life August 2018
The chicken liver pâté is one of the standouts on a menu of sharing plates designed by chef Craig Harding
ConstantIne 15 Charles st., 647-475-4436
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I thought I’d had my fill of chicken liver pâté, but Harding’s is exceptionally smooth and sultry, smeared on crostini and served with a tangle of pickled shredded carrot. He also makes flatbread pizzas, bubbling and blackened from the wood oven, the best of them a cacio e pepe of creamy pecorino, stracchino, mozzarella and the deep funk of confit garlic; a bone-in short rib with a crust of lemony za’atar on a bed of charred tomatoes; and hand-cranked pastas, like a bowl of springy spaghetti dressed with olive oil–toasted bread crumbs and super-sweet cocktail shrimp sourced from Fogo Island. He’s attuned to what’s in season without being heavy-handed. One of my favourites on an early menu was a salad of endive and fennel, smoky from the grill, and dressed with sections of
photographs: constantine by dave gillespie
by m a r k pu p o
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mains under $10
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mains $10 to $20
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mains $20 to $30
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mains $30 and up
Basics are best at the Danforth’s new farm-to-table spot
photographs: city betty by renée suen; giulietta by caroline aksich
A salad of grilled endive and fennel with hyperseasonal Cara Cara oranges, fennel pollen and a vinaigrette made from Campari
briefly available, sugary Cara Cara oranges and a sprinkling of fennel pollen. Each bite was new, and by turns crunchy, plush, sweet and sharp, everything brought into harmony by a brilliant vinaigrette laced with Campari. It’s a high bar, but I wish the space were as interesting as Harding’s food. There are two dining rooms, both somehow over-designed and forgettable, all muted taupes, blond wood and row upon row of illuminated white glass vases that make you feel like you’re shopping for a wedding present at William Ashley. My advice is to instead focus your eyes and attention on the wine list, with its delicious Mediterranean oddities, and on desserts like a creamy halva mousse wrapped in a twirled sesame-honey snap and dusted with a lime snow. $$$
Rob Rossi brings grown-up Italian to Dufferin Grove
City Betty
Giulietta
1352 Danforth Ave., 647-271-3949
972 College St., 416-964-0606
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keeping track of chef Alex Molitz is a full-time job. He first drew notice for hunter’s feasts and bacchanalian brunches at Farmhouse Tavern, before sneaking off to the brilliant but short-lived Prohibitionthemed Geraldine, and Waupoos Estate in Prince Edward County. Now he’s found his happy place at City Betty, allowing him to rediscover everything there is to love about farm-to-table cooking. In the weeks this spring when other chefs were dreaming up elaborate uses for ramps, Molitz simply pan-fried them in butter and highlighted their garlicky flavour with a sharp vinaigrette for unpretentious perfection. He inverted a stuffed avocado, layering creamy slices over pickled chilies and straight-off-the-plane Fogo Island shrimp. The basics-are-best ethos carries over to the desserts, like a plate of warm chocolate chip cookies, ready for dunking in a frosted glass of bourbon and almond milk. $$$
there comes an inevitably rude discovery for most 30-somethings— chefs included—that the hedonistic dining habits of their 20s need to go. The music is suddenly too loud, the room too dark, and the hangovers—oh, the hangovers. At Giulietta, the Italian restaurant fashioned out of the now-closed hipster steak house Bestellen, 35-year-old chef Rob Rossi is aging with his clientele, opening the kind of place where lambrusco gets top billing over craft beer. It’s lighter in every sense of the word. Even the platings are refreshingly straightforward: a tangle of cacio e pepe pulsing with Kampot black pepper; a lightly sauced white pizza topped with lardo, smoked scamorza and Sicilian pistachios on a paper-thin crust; and a stew of braised goat over polenta that’s primed to become one of the city’s best winter dishes all too soon. The Red Fife tiramisù is a convincing argument that growing up shouldn’t have to mean skipping dessert. $$$ August 2018 toronto life 103
TORONTO DOUGHNUT FESTIVAL PRESENTED BY
Five hundred sweet-toothed Torontonians descended on Dufferin Mall in June for the second annual Toronto Doughnut Festival. This sugar-fuelled scavenger hunt dispatched attendees to sampling stations scattered throughout the mall. There were more than a dozen different doughnuts to try, ranging from classic to seriously out there. Cheese Boutique’s Italian-style bombe were superpopular, as one would expect given that they were filled with Nutella, dulce de leche, vanilla custard, or raspberry or blueberry jelly. Chef Jagger Gordon got savoury with his, creating a grilled cheese doughnut stuffed with American and Swiss, and topped with a tomato-basil icing. 10tation Catering’s vanilla cake doughnut was dipped in rich chocolate and finished with a sprinkling of sponge toffee. Apiecalypse Now’s classic cinnamon twists were somehow simultaneously light and chewy. Daddy O’s cloud-like yeast doughnuts were covered in a dense chocolate ganache and Reese’s Pieces. Janchenko’s served up traditional Polish ponchiki filled with tart plum purée. Loukoumania served Greek deep-fried loukoumades coated in raspberry jelly. Sorelle and Co.’s creations were vegan, gluten-free and soy-free. Sunshine Doughnuts brought an early taste of the CNE with a cotton candy and bubble gum doughnut. Tre Mari Bakery whipped up maple-coated vanilla doughnuts. Tori’s kept it classic (and vegan) with a vanilla cake doughnut. And Von Doughnuts took a yeast base, dipped it in caramel and drizzled it with dark chocolate. In addition, Tim Hortons provided hot coffee and cold drinks, No Frills supplied water, Davids Tea provided iced raspberry tea, and Starbucks served up peach-citrus white tea. After all that, attendees got to bring home a mixand-match six-pack of doughnuts. For more pictures from the event, visit torontolife.com/events/doughnutfest photographs by kennedy pollard
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A night of bad blood with Taylor Swift muSic | Taylor Swift Aug. 3 and 4, Rogers Centre
When Taylor Swift scuffled with Calvin Harris and Katy Perry in 2016, and then with Kim and Kanye, haters spammed her Instagram account with snake emojis. They could have never guessed that she’d reclaim the slithery beast as the central motif of her next tour—but then again, Swift has always found a way to incorporate personal woes into her music. The theme binds together her Reputation tour, where Swift wields a glitzed-out snake microphone and dances around a giant onstage reptile. Her performance will encompass the many phases of her career (dating back to her early days as a country artist) while confronting her less-than-perfect image. August 2018 toronto life 107
2 A wild ride at Canada’s largest fair
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fAmily | cNe | Aug. 17 to Sept. 3, Exhibition Place
The guilt-ridden taste of Tiny Tom doughnuts, the yips of the SuperDogs, the rumblings of the Air Show, the pungent aroma of the farm building—no annual event offers quite the same sensory overload as the Canadian National Exhibition. You know what you’re in for from Canada’s biggest and most gloriously tacky fair: a plethora of rides, concerts, marketplaces, acrobatics, animals, stunts, buskers, butter sculptures and artery-busting food. Performers this year include Stars, Hollerado and Marianas Trench.
A darkly comedic tragedy
BOOKs
French Exit by Patrick de Witt House of AnAnsi Press
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An opera for amateurs
OperA Summer Opera Lyric theatre To Aug. 5, Robert Gill Theatre
Semi-professional singers and actors come together in works both mainstream and arcane, capping off months of rehearsals with performances in late July and early August. Sets are minimal, costumes rudimentary, and the “orchestra” consists of a piano, but there’s no lack of fervour or commitment. The best bet of the three shows on offer: Così fan tutte, Mozart’s comedy of (bad) manners, sung in English. 108 toronto life August 2018
In his latest book, B.C.-born author Patrick deWitt— whose debut novel, The Sisters Brothers, is getting the blockbuster treatment this year with Joaquin Phoenix and Jake Gyllenhaal—spins a darkly comic tragedy. Frances Price is an overprotective mother who believes the spirit of her dead husband resides in her aging cat. When she and her grown son flee for Paris to escape bankruptcy, they meet a series of eccentric characters— including a psychic and a doctor who makes house calls with a local wine merchant—that fuel their economic woes and ultimately lead to their self-destruction.
photographs: cne by istock; opera courtesy of summer opera lyric theatre; dewitt courtesy of house of anansi press
Aug. 28
5 A nerdy homecoming pop culture | Fan Expo | Aug. 30 to Sept. 2, Metro Toronto Convention Centre
photographs: expo courtesy of fan expo; market courtesy of waterfront night market; drake by getty images
Cosplayers, comic artists, panels and geek-chic retailers spread across 400,000 square feet at Canada’s biggest annual nerdathon. Two iconic ’80s reunions highlight this year’s edition: Back to the Future’s Michael J. Fox, Lea Thompson and Christopher Lloyd appear for photo ops, while Cary Elwes, Chris Sarandon and the inconceivable Wallace Shawn discuss The Princess Bride. Jeff Goldblum, Evangeline Lilly, Karen Gillan and that old warhorse William Shatner are among the other high-profile guests at the 24th annual Fan Expo.
6 A dumpling lover’s paradise fooD | Waterfront Night Market Aug. 10 to 12, Ontario Place
After last year’s chaotic, chockablock opening at the Hearn Generating Station, this year’s pan-Asian food festival gets a location upgrade to Ontario Place. The ninth annual night market is poised to be even bigger and better, with local artisans and food vendors selling every imaginable variation of dumpling, curry and tempura— and some unimaginable kinds too.
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Back-to-back weekends with Drake music | OVO Fest Aug. 5 and 6, venue TBD; Drake and Migos: Aug. 10 to 12, Air Canada Centre A generation was torn apart in the Great Drake/Pusha T War of 2018. More than just a petty diss, “The Story of Adidon” was the culmination of an ongoing campaign to label the 6 God as a mere trend-hopper and meme factory. Battered but not beaten, Toronto’s favourite son returns home for a full lineup of shows: first up, he’ll host a slate of surprise guests during his annual OVO Fest. The following weekend, he’ll take over the ACC with American hip-hop trio Migos to push his newest album, Scorpion. In the midst of all the drama, maybe the normally unflappable rapper will feel a little extra pressure to prove his authenticity.
August 2018 toronto life 109
10 Tales of a daring escape
BOOKs
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Women Talking by MiriaM Toews Penguin Random House canada
A boozy end-of-summer celebration DRINK | Toronto Cider Festival | Aug. 24 and 25, Sherbourne Common As summer comes to a tragic end, the Toronto Cider Festival gives us a good excuse to drink away our sorrows. As part of this year’s Ranch and Rodeo theme, you’ll find a plethora of cowboy boots, straw hats and Canadian tuxedos. More importantly, the weekend also serves up over 100 types of local and imported ciders, a cider cocktail bartending competition, live performances and a mechanical bull.
9 A show fit for a king TheATRe | The King and I To Aug. 12, Princess of Wales Theatre
Toronto gets to witness the epic Broadway revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s 1951 masterpiece. East and West clash and commingle in this historical romance, set in 1860s Bangkok, where a strong-willed British widow is tasked with teaching the children of a progressive-minded king. The sumptuous new production, directed by Tony winner Bartlett Sher, features a predominantly AsianAmerican cast led by FilipinoAmerican Broadway stage star Jose Llana as King Mongkut. 110 toronto life August 2018
Acclaimed author Miriam Toews (All My Puny Sorrows, A Complicated Kindness) speculates on the trauma in a small Mennonite community after more than 100 women are drugged, sexually assaulted and told by the men of the colony that the attackers were “ghosts” or “demons.” Inspired by true events that took place between 2005 and 2009, the story is an imagined response from eight of the women, who debate whether to remain in the village when all the men leave to post bail for the imprisoned attackers. Toews brings empathy and acerbic wit to a timely story that reviewers have praised as her most gripping novel to date.
photographs: cider courtesy of toronto cider festival; king and i courtesy of mirvish; toews courtesy of penguin random house canada
Aug. 21
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SummerWorks’ must-see shows
The PrivaTe Life of The MasTer race
Aug. 9, 14 to 16 The Theatre Centre
adrenaLine
Aug. 11, 12, 18 and 19
Aug. 10, 14 to 17 Toronto Media Arts Centre
The Theatre Centre
Canadian-based Syrian playwright Ahmad Meree performs in this solo production about a young refugee’s anxiety after leaving loved ones behind in a war-ravaged country. Turning household items into puppets of family members, he recreates scenes from his past, offering a first-hand account of his experience coming to Canada.
Using puppetry and a cardboard cityscape, Halifax-based Theatre du Poulet traces Hong Kong’s history of occupation from its time as a British colony to the present day under Chinese control. The play explores the ongoing tension between the city’s communist masters and prodemocracy movement.
overhear ToronTo
Aug. 11, 12 and 18 Trinity Bellwoods
café sarajevo
Aug. 11, 18 and 19 Toronto Media Arts Centre
Toronto performance collective Bluemouth Inc.’s latest immersive work is billed as part live podcast, part coffee house debate. Inspired by a 1971 televised bout between intellectual heavyweights Michel Foucault and Noam Chomsky, the show highlights themes of war, civil disobedience and societal flaws.
Combining GPS, Bluetooth and smartphone technology, participants are invited to shape their own experience in this one-on-one performance experiment. The production leads audience members through Trinity Bellwoods, where they listen to stories of migration and cultural displacement via an audio app.
photographs courtesy of summerworks
Ted Witzel and Susanna Fournier, who deconstructed Frank Wedekind’s Lulu plays at Buddies in Bad Times earlier this year, turn their hand to another German classic. The pair have transformed Bertolt Brecht’s 1938 anti-Nazi play—a look at life in a fear-ridden fascist state—into a flamboyant cabaret performance.
The exTincTion of hong Kongers
August 2018 toronto life 111
12 An urban summer camp music | Camp Wavelength
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Aug. 18 and 19, Fort York Garrison Common
Last year’s indie weekend was a literal washout— the event was forced to change venues lastminute because of flooding on the Toronto Islands. This year, Camp Wavelength is protecting itself against acts of nature by relocating to Fort York. Headliners include Suuns, Tops, Chad VanGaalen and Moscow Apartment. As a new addition to the two-day festival, local comedians perform on a new Campfire Comedy stage, and artists install interactive on-site exhibits.
BOOKs
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I’m Afraid of Men by ViVek Shraya Penguin random house Canada
A floating movie theatre Aug. 10 and 11, Sugar Beach
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A symphonic wartime tribute clAssicAl | a Tribute to yehudi Menuhin July 30, Walter Hall
In tune with the theme of this year’s Toronto Summer Music Festival, Reflections of Wartime, Toronto’s classical musicians celebrate one of the world’s greatest violinists. Yehudi Menuhin, who died in 1999, is remembered for the concerts he performed for Allied troops and concentration camp survivors. Those same works he played decades ago, including Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata, are performed here by violinist Jonathan Crow and pianist Philip Chiu.
112 toronto life August 2018
Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist and author Vivek Shraya was mocked and mistreated as a child for being too feminine. As a trans woman, she faces judgment for not being feminine enough. In this candid memoir, Shraya layers humour and emotion to document the absurd pressures she faces every day. By exploring how misogyny and transphobia have weaved their way into her life, her story envisions a future that moves beyond old gender paradigms, celebrates differences and helps readers reimagine what gender looks like in the 21st century.
photographs: wavelength courtesy of wavelength; cinema courtesy of toronto port authority; menuhin courtesy of toronto summer music festival; shraya courtesy of penguin random house canada
Aug. 28
Film | Sail-in Cinema
Toronto has plenty of outdoor screening series—in parks, on rooftops, in city squares—but there’s only one that you can attend from the comfort of your yacht. Sail-In Cinema returns to Sugar Beach with two popcorn classics chosen by an online vote (voting closes July 12). Cuddle up on the sand or drop anchor in the harbour, and enjoy a movie under the stars on a two-sided screen.
A harrowing trans memoir
Lynda Prince and Vanessa Mulroney
Elana Rabinovitch and Sarah Fulford
Claire McIntyre and her table guests
THANK YOU Rajiv Maikhuri and Ann Layton
Authors Adrian Owen, Joy Kogawa, Thomas King, Najwa Zebian and Alana Somerville
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a Mamma Mia! reprise theatre | Mamma Mia! Aug. 9 to 19, Ed Mirvish Theatre
Just in time for this summer’s movie sequel to the ABBA musical, Mirvish is revisiting the original stage version of the much-loved show—which had its North American premiere in Toronto in 2000. Prepare to bop along to a bevy of Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus classics, including “Dancing Queen,” “Knowing Me, Knowing You” and, of course, the titular song in this effervescent tale of mothers, daughters, exlovers and big fat Greek weddings.
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a once-in-a-lifetime night with David Bryne
Unlike many of his generational coevals, the 66-year-old musical virtuoso continues to create sounds that rival modern-day artists. On his American Utopia tour, Byrne reinvents himself yet again with a show that is both stripped-down and complex. There are no pyrotechnics and very few props—just a densely choreographed and truly democratic showcase for Byrne’s 12-piece band. With a set list split between new material and Talking Heads bangers, this is the kind of concert that comes—wait for it—once in a lifetime.
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Shakespearean classics with a modern twist theatre | Shakespeare in High Park To Sept. 2, High Park Amphitheatre
Love, both comic and tragic, is in the (open) air this summer as Shakespeare in High Park celebrates its 36th season. Romeo and Juliet’s timeless tale of starcrossed lovers gets a contemporary urban edge in director Frank Cox-O’Connell’s staging, which parallels the play’s violent family rivalry with today’s soccer-hooligan culture. Tanja Jacobs’ Fellini-inspired A Midsummer Night’s Dream relocates the comedy’s enchanted lovers and fairies to a 1950s Italian amusement park. 114 toronto life August 2018
photographs: mamma mia courtesy of mirvish; byrne by getty images; play courtesy of shakespeare in high park
MuSic | David Byrne | Aug. 3 and 4, Sony Centre for the Performing Arts
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memoir
Strange Trip
I was paralyzed by anxiety, indecision and panic attacks. Therapy didn’t work for me, so I turned to psychedelics and found more answers than I expected
“I’m in some kind of hole,” I told my therapist. I was trying to The shaman said she had personally synthesized the “medicine” work out what was happening to my mind. Months of traumas— I was about to take, a substance called N,N-dimethyltryptamine— family issues, the violent death of a friend, the implosion of my better known as DMT. She produced a glass pipe and explained relationship—had, like a slow poison, seeped into my life until that I was to take five hits. “On number three, you’ll tell me you’ve I felt paralyzed. I was trapped in a loop of discursive, self- had enough, and I’ll tell you to keep going,” she said. If you have critical thought. I’m a freelance journalist, but I found myself ever been close to blackout drunk and seen the world spin unconunable to take on new assignments and, inexplicably, unwilling trollably around you, then you know what the third hit of DMT to invoice for finished work. My therapist, after our third ses- is like. The shaman guided the pipe to my mouth for the fourth sion, eyed me with indifference and handed me 40 photocopied and then fifth hits, and suddenly I was laid out on my back. pages on cognitive behavioural therapy as he shuffled me out Everything turned black, as though I was watching a blank the door. I got the sense that approach was going nowhere. screen, except that there was no “me” watching. The blackness I had researched meditation, exercise, dietary changes and was just there, happening. I was vaguely aware of the “self,” other ways to prevent myself from slipping but only insofar as I knew that I was aware at further down the hole. But the most intriguing all. Then a pool of green, red and yellow fire method I had come across was psychedelic appeared, swirling around what looked to be drugs, which had, in recent studies, shown a medieval helmet. great efficacy in treating depression, anxiety This was taking place within the confines of and PTSD. My underwhelming experience my brain, yet it was completely involuntary—a with therapy had left me with the kind of decisive, overwhelming subjugation of the ego. hopelessness that breeds desire for radical I started to feel some sense of self again, in the solutions. I opened my laptop and googled form of two distinct emotions: I was in awe of “Toronto psychedelic drugs.” the fire and terrified of the helmet. I felt as though Six weeks later, on a Sunday in February, I I would fall into it and, frankly, that I was going As the DMT was lying on the floor of a woman’s apartment to die. The image shattered. The pieces re-emerged in the east end, wrapped in a Mexican blanket as a pattern of purple and black shields, then hit my lungs, and weeping uncontrollably. I had met the disappeared. Soon, I was aware of the shaman’s I passed out. woman a few hours earlier. She was a selfhand on my arm, and I realized that I had been Later, I realized described shaman, a spiritual healer who weeping. “Respira,” she whispered. Breathe. practises South American plant medicine. In She was fascinated by what I told her about the I’d been sobbing her pre-shamanic life, she suffered from a helmet and shields. Like all of our emotions, the entire time severe drug addiction, was homeless and hadn’t anxiety is a chemical effect in the brain, one that spoken to her family for a decade. Eventually, likely evolved over millennia because it served she made her way to South America, where she trained in the a purpose in our survival. It was a kind of armour, meant to shamanic arts, conducting ceremonies using a psychedelic tea protect us. But when the mind surrenders control, anxiety can called ayahuasca. become a cage. The helmet made some sense. The author Michael Pollan, in his recent book on psychedelics, Sitting under the fluorescence of the 501 streetcar on my way describes the concept of “ego dissolution,” which is an often- back home, I thought more about the helmet and how it had reported and now scientifically supported effect of potent psy- shattered before it could take me. Perhaps my anxieties could chedelics. Scientists at Imperial College London have observed shatter, too, if I could manage to observe them from the outside. that activity in the brain’s default mode network, the system These are realizations that don’t require DMT or shamans, of responsible for building a sense of self and reflecting on the self’s course. But the trip brought shape and clarity to what I had been nature, can drop dramatically during a psychedelic trip. On a feeling. I can’t say that the fear and the panic have vanished. day-to-day basis, the default mode network is vital to healthy Sometimes they wake me up early in the morning, or accompany neural function, acting as the brain’s central co-ordinator. But unexpected moments of disappointment or failure. But they it’s also a real son of a bitch—the devil on your shoulder, the author seem more brittle now, with obvious cracks through which I of hopelessness and self-blame. Conditions like anxiety and can see a world that is a little lighter. depression can be associated with a default mode network run amok and, according to proponents of psychedelic treatments, a Sulaiman Hakemy is a freelance journalist based in Toronto. Email submissions to memoir@torontolife.com little dissolution of the ego can be a good thing. 116 toronto life August 2018
photograph courtesy of sulaiman hakemy
by su l a i m a n h a k e m y
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