National Post from Toronto, Ontario, Canada • 10

CANADA A10 NATIONAL POST, SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 2000 Although patience may be a virtue, nothing inspires tolerance, even if it is coerced, quite like a man with a gun SOME CALL IT PROGRESS lice patrols after IRA bomb threats. It turns out, the men in the convoy were part of the police department's elite Emergency Response Team on a training exercise. The team later apologized for upsetting her, but maintained they were just doing their duty and acting as they would in a real encounter. National Post, with files from The Canadian Press A Vancouver driver learned a lesson in patience this week when she tried to pass Emergency Response Team vehicles on a downtown road. Kerry Constable, 27, was following a slow-moving convoy of five vehicles.

She tried to pass the convoy a number of times, but the last vehicle in the convoy moved to block her each time. Finally, the last vehicle swerved directly in front of her and blocked her lane. A man with a submachine gun opened the rear doors of the vehicle and told her to back off. Ms. Constable, a native of Britain, said the scene reminded her of po Violations latest PARKING CRUNCH PROMPTS EXPROPRIATION in a long line for Movenpick perature in an automatic glass washer and failing to protect food RESTAURANT'HAS A HISTORY' from contamination by not pro viding sufficient sneeze guards in front of food on open buffets, were dismissed by Mr.

West as minor in comparison to rodent infestations found in eateries that By Brad Mackay It's no secret that parking is a problem in Toronto's trendy Leaside area, but Norman Goldstein is shocked at the lengths the city will go to help alleviate the problem. Mr. Goldstein learned last month that the City of Toronto wants to expropriate an office building he owns at 1560 Bayview Ave. in the middle of a trendy shopping area to make way for a 23-spot parking lot. If that wasn't enough, the city is planning to subsidize the forced buyout by raising taxes on local business owners including Mr.

Goldstein, who owns several other properties nearby. "If you would have asked me a month ago for a list of the 10 worst things that have happened to me in this business, expi opria- were closed by the city. "It's like lumping parking ticket fines in with mass murderers, Mr. West said. He said Movenpick supports the restaurant inspection offen sive, but urged the city not to make an example of high-quality restaurants charged with minor offences.

Movenpick will be issued a sum mons to appear in court in the next three weeks and faces fines of up to $25,000 for each restau tion wouldn't have even made the list," said the 20-year real estate veteran. "I'm not sure I even understand the situation I'm in." rant if found guilty. Company argues minor offences don't deserve city's wrath By Dksmond Brown Public health officials said yesterday that three Movenpick restaurants facing charges in an inspection blitz have been cited for at least 20 other violations over the past two years. "Movenpick has a history of moving in and out of compliance," said Reg Ayre, manager for Toronto Public Health. Mr.

Ayre said the violations ranged from serious food safety problems to sanitation issues. The confirmation comes a day after the three restaurants Rossli, The Verandah and La Belle Terrace which are all located in the Movenpick complex at 165 York St. in the financial district, were charged for failing to comply with earlier warnings of code violations. Colin West, vice-president and secretary treasurer for Richtree Markets owners of Movenpick, said his company has not had to pay any fines and he couldn't comment on the earlier violations. Movenpick held a news conference yesterday to address the new charges.

The charges, which include having the inappropriate water tem The current blitz was ordered by Mel Lastman, the mayor, two weeks ago after reports that For years, businesses and resi Toronto restaurants were violat ing public health regulations. dents in Leaside have been lobbying local city councillors for additional parking to accommodate the flocks of shoppers along the popular stretch. Approximately 3,500 out of 7,000 eatenes within the pre-amalgamation boundaries of the city of Toronto will be inspected Propelled by a local merchants' association, councillors in con over the next 13 weeks. junction with the parking authori In the past week and a half, about ty began searching for a solution. 180 restaurants were inspected.

After close to 10 years of waiting Of those, 142 had but almost all were corrected within for a viable vacant property to come available, the city approached Mr. Goldstein last summer about buying his building. 48 hours. Six establishments have been closed down, including a grocery But when he expressed little in store and bakery. Along with the Movenpick out terest in selling, the search continued behind closed doors at City Hall.

lets, two other restaurants are JOHN LEHMANN NATIONAL POST Seen through a shattered glass door in Toronto yesterday, The Rock, whose real name is Dwaync Johnson, The next thing he knew, an ex facing charges. National Post is a three-time WWF champion who has a way with words. propriation order was announced and voted on during a city council meeting in February. my biggest fan and critic." Mr. Hair, who was in charge of It was a matter of the lesser of And she organizes his retire orderlies at the Montreal Gener ment fund contributions.

various evils," said Jane Pitfield, the councillor who was responsi Eat your ravioli, dont be a jabroni al Hospital, appealed for help to On the ride to the book-signing, he talks about baking cookies with provide a proper bunal. ble for choosing the site. The fund began burying veter Martha Stewart, mentions that Tne reason it was done secretly ans at two cemeteries on Mount is because we didn't want any and cheer for The Rock hell be on Saturday Night Live on March 18 and says there will be both a NASCAR race car and a Royal and, in 1930, set up its own site Pointe-Claire. Future of soldiers graveyard rests with peacekeepers speculation to drive up the cost of the property. It was just a matter of policy." Monster Truck named after him.

Today, the fund has nine branches across Canada and ad Mr. Goldstein claims that, based ministers an annual budget of So I don't feel too bad pocketing the cookies the waiter handed us when we left. I was supposed to share them with The Rock, but he on sales of comparable properties, his building is worth $5-million. $14-milhon from the Depart ment of Veteran Affairs. All told, Ms.

Pitfield says the eventual the fund has buried upward of seems to have everything already. cost, after the city completes a 60,000 veterans and their the your Chef Boy-ardee Ravioli!" OK, maybe it doesn't rhyme all that well.) When The Rock hops into the limo, the first thing he says is: "Hey, how you doin?" (which, for anyone who watches Friends, is also the phrase used by the character Joey, as a schwarmy pickup line). The Rock is a down-to-earth, all-business sort of guy. He goes over And if he gave me trouble over market assessment study, will spouses in various cemeteries those cookies, I had a comeback: likely be half that amount. "How would you like me to lay the According to a study by the throughout the country.

About 70 of those buried be NATIONAL FIELD OF HONOUR smackdown on your candy ass?" Yeah, take that buster! National Post parking authority of Toronto, the building meets both space and proximity designations as out neath the plain granite markers in the National Field of Honour lined by city regulations. Rebecca Eckler "pay their own way," Genin said. A stroll through the 5.8- his day with Mr. De Marco I lost interest as soon as I spotted his thick gold Rolex watch, his wed The city rejected demolishing Majority of veterans from century's wars have already passed hectare cemetery, which is in other nearby buildings, which house bank branches and coffee shops, to build the parking lot. ding band with no fewer than 8 huge diamonds and his black patent shoes with a gold band the shape of a hockey stick, reveals the graves of well-heeled When it comes to anything wrestling these days, noth B.C.

hockey coach released from jail on sex conviction Quite frankly that's not a possi generals lying next to penniless ing is done half-assed. across the top and gold lion heads. bility," Ms. Pitfield said. Which is why I found myself in a I ve talked to many residents privates.

There are men known to histo limousine the length of small I've learned that most wrestlers are like their characters they just turn the volume up in the the area and, in their opinion, ry, such as Clarence Campbell, 1560 is an eyesore because the the former National Hockey ring. (The Rock often wrestles in design of the building is not in character with the rest of the town main street when I tagged along yesterday with Carl De Marco, president of WWF Canada, to pick up wrestling superstar VICTORIA A former Victoria League boss, and Sir Benjamin D'Urban, who gave his name to Versace shirts and belts.) Our first stop was at his hotel street. It has bright royal blue trim and it's in poor condition." the South African city. The Rock at the airport. near the airport, where he minor hockey coach who tricked his teenage players into having sex with him when they thought As well, spouses of veterans The hmo was stocked with more While outraged by such com and immediate family members ments, Mr.

Goldstein is also con they were to have sex with a girl are entitled to burial at the Na wine glasses and drinks than I've ever had on my kitchen shelves, plus two televisions and a VCR. will be released from his five-year prison sentence. cerned for his tenants, most of whom are small-business owners who rely on the prime location for their profitability. Heck, I'd change my name to Rat tional Field of Honour. The new section of the cemetery is dubbed the Peace Garden, which centres around a granite tlesnake, wear bad underwear and Richard Hall of Cowichan, B.C., will instead serve a conditional sentence of two years less a day learn to pile drive for this lifestyle! "It seems like a drastic step to under what amounts to house ar 1 he Rock, a 6-foot, 5-inch, 265- rest, together with conditions and three years' probation.

Hall has been in prison since Ju pounder known as the most "electrifying man in sports entertainment," is now a best-selling author: Since The Rock Says was released in January, it's sold more than 'EXPROPRIATIONS ARE NOT THE WAY WE LIKE ly when Mr. Justice Dean Wilson of B.C. Supreme Court sentenced him to five years for sexually as THE CEMETERY IS RAPIDLY GETTING TO THE END OF THE LINE FOR KOREAN CONFLICT VETERANS TO DO BUSINESS' 50,000 copies in Canada alone. He came to Toronto yesterday for saulting teenage hockey players. a press conference, to autograph But three B.C.

Court of Appeal judges, noting psychiatric and psychological evidence, agreed with Susan Wishart, the defence copies of his book and to wrestle in front of 30,000 fans at SkyDome. remedy a long-standing problem in this area," said tenant Peter Bennet of Hearthstone Property MONTREAL The National Field of Honour, described as Canada's only military cemetery, is trying to expand its client base by accepting not only war veterans but also peacekeepers and their relatives. About 17,300 war veterans rest in the cemetery in suburban Pointe-Claire. Although military sections exist in cemeteries elsewhere, the National Field of Honour is the sole burial ground devoted entirely to war veterans, said Brigadier General J. Richard Genin, Quebec president of the Last Post Fund, which runs the graveyard.

In an attempt to recognize more contemporary forms of military intervention by Canadian soldiers, the cemetery's definition of veterans has recently been expanded to include those who have served in peacekeeping, peacemaking or observer missions. No service people have yet been buried under the new criteria, but that's where the future of the cemetery lies. "They're mostly young kids still," said Rene Poithier, Last Post branch manager, referring to the peace veterans. A retired colonel who served in a peacekeeping mission in Egypt in 1975, Mr. Poithier is one such youngster, age 58.

The Last Post Fund ensures that no veteran is denied a dignified funeral and burial for lack of funds. It began in 1909 when Arthur Hair, a gunner in India and in South Africa during the Boer War, was appalled by the story of a Crimean War veteran, a homeless man who died of starvation and was heading for a pauper's grave. But 1 wanted desperately to meet Management. this man because, from where I stand, he appears to have become "Usually, when you expropriate slab emblazoned with the words "Peace-Paix" and topped with a dove. It is designed to usher in a buildings, it's done for large pro checked in under a code name (starts with an ends with an E) and wrote his food order for us to give to the waiter while he went to drop his bags in his room.

This is what the 27-year-old, three-time WWF champion eats for breakfast: Eight white-only scrambled eggs, two toasted bagels (but no butter) and a side of cream cheese. Even though the kitchen was only serving lunch, he is The Rock, so he got what he wanted. "I know what he wants to drink," said our waiter proudly. "He wants orange juice and water. I've served him before." Over my lunch and his breakfast, The Rock said that one of his favourite lines is: "It don't matter." "So, if I ask you How's that he explains, "You can say: 'It don't (Can you just picture overhearing an all-Rock slang conversation? "How's the shut-up juice?" "It don't Though some of his phrases are crude (I would be fired if I explained the meaning of some of them), The Rock is not vulgar.

He cuts the already-sliced pieces of melon and honeydew on his fruit plate with a fork and knife, and dabs the corners of his mouth daintily with the linen napkin. The Rock's father, Rocky Johnson, was a wrestler, and so was his grandfather. His wife is an associate vice-president at Merrill Lynch in Miami. "She's the real rock in the family," he says. "She's a multi-millionaire primarily because of his smart-ass lingo.

jects like a subway system not new era. 23 parking spots. 1 nat, plus I ve seen pictures. The According to Rock, whose given name, Dwavne Tenants have suggested a num Genin calculations, the ceme Johnson, is less than studly, has the body of an Adonis.) lawyer, that a conditional sentence was appropriate. She said Hall has not reoffended for 10 years, has been rehabilitated as far as is possible and represents a low risk of reoffending.

Hall, 41, tricked three boys in the late 1980s with the promise of sex with a young girl who insisted the boys be blindfolded for her anonymity. Two of the boys peeped over the blindfold and were shocked to see Hall. There was no girl. Justices Lance Finch, Ian Don tery is at its peak for Second World War burials and is rapidly getting to the end of the line for ber of alternatives to the plan, including extended parking hours in the street or shared parking with a large grocery store up the street. His "Know your role and shut your mouth!" is one of his catch- Korean conflict veterans.

phrases. So is: "How would you like a tall glass of shut up?" And his Burials for them should start Maurice Anderson, the presi classic, and my personal favourite: How would you like me to lay the dent of the Toronto Parking Authority, believes the choice was the only reasonable one. smackdown on your candy ass?" (I have no idea what this means, 'Expropriations are not the way ald and Mary Newbury said Judge Wilson had a "mistaken view of the facts" related to the chronolo but it really does roll off the tongue nicely.) we like to do business, but it's the only solution that's there today tapering off in a few years, coming to a close by about 2010, after which time further demand for space will come from peacekeeping veterans. "By that time, there won't be many more war vets left from the Second World War and Korea," Genin said. "So long as we don't have another war." The Gazette for this area." In The Rock vernacular, the gy of Hall's previous offences.

Hall's new sentence is retroac He could recall only one experi word "jabroni" is the equivalent of "stupid idiot." (Also, "jabroni" rhymes with ravioli, so Chef Boy-ardee uses The Rock in his adver tive to last July. He will be on probation for three years after the sentence ends. ence in 20 years in which a business had to be forceably bought out to facilitate parking. The Times-Colonist tising. "Don't be a jabroni," goes National Post.