Make Your Choice! Toronto Or Vaughan

City above Toronto not city above the law

Toxic politics spawn lurid but unproven tales of corruption

"We need Julian Fantino in Vaughan – not as a mayor, but as commissioner of the OPP," a Vaughan citizen told me last week. Another friend dismissed any wrongdoing on city council, saying that "all the rumours are generated by the media targeting the Italian Canadian community."

Neither view is completely right or completely wrong.

The ethnic factor, especially in the past, has played a role in the life of the city, and I have had the opportunity to write about it many times. Vaughan, "the city above Toronto," is not the city above the law that some would like to portray.

Still, there is something in Vaughan that makes the city different from other municipalities. It's not about its citizens, but about a toxic environment around the city's administration and the people dealing with it, especially developers. It appears that being a developer in Vaughan is a sin, especially if they are of Italian origin.

Let's ignore that toxic environment for a moment and take a look at some hard facts.

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