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Mark McEwan, considered one of Canada’s top chefs, counts such culinary ventures under his apron as North 44, ONE, Bymark, as well as an eponymous grocery store.

You’ve said in previous interviews that business smarts are just as important in your world as culinary skill. What advice do you have for those who may be long on talent in the kitchen, but short on savvy with numbers?
My business is a business like any: You’d better know the financial side of it or you’ll never succeed. There are no phenomena that happen in my business just by themselves. You have to be practised in how you manage your day.

And on that note, what are some of the things that can make or break an aspiring chef?
Inability to handle the stress, the hours, the physical nature of the job. One of the things about being a chef is that you have to be able to do service. Service is very, very stressful. So it’s not just about managing the business, it’s about being a very good cook. You have to be very good at both sides of it to be successful at it.

And now you have some of the top restaurants in the city, a TV show, a grocery store, books … what’s left?
I have a new restaurant opening at the end of August right across from my grocery store. It’s called Fabbrica. Old school Italian food, including Napolitana-style pizza. I’ll also do more stores and I’ll be doing Top Chef Canada. We start shooting in the middle of August and it’ll come out next spring.

So on Top Chef, would you say you’re going to be more of a Gordon Ramsey or a Jamie Oliver type?
I’m somewhere just right of centre (laughs). I’m not much of a hysterical screamer. I usually just fire people if they’re really incompetent. 

After a long day in the kitchen, do you ever just order a pizza?
All the time. My wife and I go to Terroni for pizza. A good pizza is great. That’s why I’m doing Fabbrica.

No, I mean do you ever call for delivery?
Sure. Pizza Pizza is terrible pizza, but Pizza Nova has the best delivery pizza in the city, as far as a mass-produced product.

It looks a little out of place in the urban jungle that surrounds it. The unassuming, manicured Rose Garden sits on the corner of Yonge Street and Park Home Avenue, offering those who live and work in the nearby dozen or so high-rises a little green relief.

It is one of the few relatively new green spaces on this central Yonge Street corridor that can still be considered a park — not a half-hearted parkette or concrete community space. And over the past year, it has become a symbol of the struggle of green spaces to survive in the face of pressure to develop.

Last year, Menkes Developments Ltd. faced opposition from the city and local residents when it unveiled plans to build two 42-storey condo towers on top of the park. The final plan will save much of the park, but when the towers are finished, only a tiny swath of land will be visible from Yonge.

There are no official numbers showing how much green space on Yonge in the GTA has disappeared over the past few decades, partly because of the piecemeal way in which the city has been planned. Yet, city planners, environmentalists and politicians all acknowledge there is very little, if any, available green space left on the city’s central corridor.

A group of anti-poverty activists won bail Thursday after being held overnight following a brief occupation of Ontario Liberal Party offices in downtown Toronto Escort Agency.

The six women and three men had been led into the College Park courtroom handcuffed together, looking tired and rumpled but smiling at supporters and family.

Only about 50 supporters were able to fit into the courtroom; the remainder had to wait in the hallway.

All were charged with mischief to interfere with property and forcible entry and released on $1,000 surety with various conditions.

Out of “an abundance of caution,” prosecutor Mike Callaghan included a condition that none could attend an unlawful protest.

Activists ignored signs preventing unauthorized people from entering the Liberal office, unfurled a banner and refused to leave, he said.

Government staff were put in a sort of “lockdown” in their offices out of fear violence could erupt, said Callaghan.

All are back in court Aug 30.

Some women arrested during the G20 summit are alleging police made sexual threats and used sexually charged language against them while they were in detention.

The allegations were made in two video testimonials played at a media conference Thursday organized by the Toronto Escort Agency Community Mobilization Network in Toronto Escort Agency. One of the women, Amy Miller, said she was detained for about 13 hours in a cell where she was threatened by police.

“I was told I was going to be raped,” said Miller, an independent journalist reporting for the Toronto Escort Agency-based Alternative Media Centre during the June 26-27 summit.

The other woman, Lacy MacAuley, described a police officer sitting on her pelvic area and using “sexually charged” terms that she didn’t want to repeat out loud.

When contacted about the allegations Toronto Escort Agency police spokeswoman Meaghan Gray encouraged anybody who feels they have been mistreated by a police officer to file a complaint with the office of the independent review director.

The police is not responding to individual allegations, Gray said, adding there are several disciplinary actions that could be put in place if an officer is found guilty of a serious complaint.

NEWMARKET, Ont. – A Toronto Escort Agency businessman at the centre of a scandal that saw Helena Guergis turfed from the Conservative caucus had criminal charges against him withdrawn Thursday.

Nazim Gillani was facing a fraud charge and a charge of conspiracy to commit an indictable offence in a matter unrelated to Guergis and her husband, former Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer.

While Gillani’s legal woes would have received little attention otherwise, a dinner with Jaffer last September — followed by an over-enthusiastic email about access to the Prime Minister’s Office — thrust him into the media spotlight.

Guergis was pushed from cabinet, caucus and ultimately the Conservative nomination in her Ontario riding over allegations she had used her position to further the private business interests of Jaffer.

The matter was referred to the Mounties in late April after private investigator Derrick Snowdy, who was probing Gillani’s dealings, took the allegations to the Conservative party.

The resolution of Gillani’s criminal woes came one day after the RCMP said it found no evidence of wrongdoing against Guergis or Jaffer.

In a statement Thursday, Guergis said she’s relieved with the outcome of the RCMP investigation and requested a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

“I think it is time for a face-to-face meeting between the PM and I,” Guergis said.

“He can raise his concerns, whatever they are, and I can answer. I have never been afforded this opportunity.”

Gillani’s lawyer, Brian Greenspan, said outside court Thursday there’s been “innuendo and suspicion rather than hard facts” in his client’s case.

“Perhaps the result of the RCMP investigation now reported clearly in newspapers demonstrates the reliability of Mr. Snowdy,” he said.

Assistant Crown attorney Jeffrey Costain told court that they were withdrawing the charges because there was no “reasonable prospect of conviction.”

The fraud charges stemmed from a police investigation after a Rona employee named Alexander Wiafe transferred some $1.4 million from the company to a Hong Kong bank account. The transaction was not authorized by the company.

The owner of the account in Hong Kong, Xiabong Ben Wang, alleged that Gillani and another associate told him they would pay him if he were to accept some wire transfers and move the money to other foreign accounts.

The Crown said it could not find wire transfers or other evidence to prosecute Gillani. Wiafe pleaded guilty and was sentenced Thursday to three years in prison.

Greenspan said his client never knew about the unlawful source of funds.

“I’m not saying Mr. Wang and Mr. Gillani weren’t engaged in some business transaction, it’s just the source of the funds, which turned out to be the Rona source, was not known to anyone involved up to that point,” said Greenspan.

Jaffer had been working with Gillani and the two met in a Toronto Escort Agency restaurant last September, several hours before Jaffer was pulled over for speeding, which resulted in cocaine and impaired driving charges.

Jaffer ultimately pleaded guilty to careless driving, was fined $500, and the more serious charges were dropped.

Gillani claimed in an email the day after the restaurant meeting that Jaffer would open doors in the Prime Minister’s Office for one of his ventures.

Gillani has said he was being over enthusiastic in sending the email and that Jaffer never used those words and was never paid to do any lobbying.

Snowdy testified before a Common’s committee he had no knowledge of any misbehaviour by Guergis.

A 21-year-old woman accused of causing thousands of dollars of damage during G20 protests will spend at least another week behind bars.

Kelly Rose Pflug-Back, of Norwood, Ont., waved her tattooed right arm to her family and friends in the Toronto Escort Agency courtroom Thursday, before being handcuffed and taken back into custody. She appeared in court wearing a grey sweater with long sleeves pushed up to her elbows, and her light-brown hair falling on her shoulders.

At one point she was told to keep looking to the front, as she was trying to send signals to other people in the courtroom.

Investigators allege she was an organizer of G20 violence that saw at least five police vehicles burned and storefront windows smashed on June 26.

After a brief discussion between Crown attorney Michael Callaghan and defence lawyer Steve Gehl, the presiding justice of the peace decided Pflug-Back’s next appearance would be Tuesday. At the courthouse, neither her lawyer nor family members offered to comment on her case.

At a news conference Wednesday, police alleged Pflug-Back was “single-handedly” responsible for thousands of dollars worth of damage.

Navigating the city could be a challenge again this weekend as several sporting events and street festivals roll into town, closing roads and disrupting traffic across the GTA.

With the 101st playing of the Canadian Open golf tournament underway at St. George’s Golf and Country Club, a portion of Islington Avenue remains closed until July 30 between Eglinton Avenue W. and The Kingsway to accommodate the event.

Tournament organizers advise drivers to take Eglinton Avenue, Kipling venue, Royal York Road and The Kingsway as alternate routes around the closure. TTC buses are also being diverted in the area.

Meanwhile, in the east end, the 22nd annual Beaches International Jazz Festival will close Queen Street E. between Woodbine and Beech avenues between 6 p.m. and midnight Friday and Saturday, while upwards of 50 bands perform in the festival’s Streetfest event.

Lake Shore Boulevard West will be shut down intermittently between Strachan Avenue and Ontario Drive until July 30 while the fence is removed.

Finally, if you’re travelling on Jarvis Street to get to any of this weekend’s events, don’t forget that rolling closures will be in effect until late July while bike lanes are built.

Peel Region police have made another arrest in the death of a teenager earlier this month.

Police say 20-year-old Courtney Dawkins of Toronto Escort Agency had a court date Thursday on a charge of first-degree murder.

Kevaughn Tulloch, 20, and Maurice Raphael, 23, both of Toronto Escort Agency, are also charged with first-degree murder in the case.

Cassandra Scavone, 20, of Toronto Escort Agency, is charged with being an accessory after the fact.

They are charged in the death of 17-year-old Adrian Ducas, who was shot and killed July 3 at a community centre in Mississauga where he was playing basketball. the canadian press

Toronto Escort Agency – Another Ontario watchdog is jumping into the debate over the province’s controversial eco fees.

Environmental Commissioner Gord Miller will issue a special report next Tuesday in response to the fee flap that forced the government to drop the levy earlier this week.

Much of the research was done in preparation for his annual report this fall, Miller said. But he decided to release the material early amid the public furor and the government’s decision to retool the program over the next three months.

“We thought, well, it won’t do any good for us to come out with our analysis in the fall,” he said in an interview.

“It’s best if we get in now to provide the analysis and the recommendations that we’ve come up with in this regard now, during the 90-day period when the government is reconsidering this stuff.”

Miller declined to speak about his findings, saying he didn’t want to pre-empt his own report.

But he said he does understand why there was a public uproar about the fees, which were quietly applied to thousands of household products July 1 — the same day consumers were hit with the new 13 per cent harmonized sales tax.

“I was entirely sympathetic to the kind of reaction, given the whole circumstances: the lack of public education and forewarning, and their appearance particularly at a time when everybody is paying attention to their sales slips because of the HST,” Miller said.

“It’s a time of heightened awareness and concern. So I fully understand the public’s reaction.”

Ombudsman Andre Marin has also promised to look into complaints about the eco fees, which sparked widespread confusion among retailers and consumers alike.

Environment Minister John Gerretsen dropped the fees Tuesday, but taxpayers are still on the hook for the program over the next 90 days.

Gerretsen estimated the government will spend up to $5 million to keep the program running while it’s being revamped.

With Miller’s report, taxpayers may finally get some answers about the eco fees, such as how the money is being spent, said Progressive Conservative critic Lisa MacLeod, who urged Miller to look into the fees.

“You can’t tell me that on July 1st a tax magically appeared, but that’s what happened here,” she said.

“So someone dropped the ball. It’s clearly Minister Gerretsen and the Environment Ministry, but why? How did that happen? So I think some of those questions will be answered.”

Miller’s decision to rush the delivery of his eco fee findings suggests the program has serious flaws, said NDP environment critic Peter Tabuns.

“It indicates that the program has got some real problems and that the environmental commissioner is worried that it’s not actually doing what needs to be done,” he said.

“If the fee was actually re-shaping the way companies dealt with toxic products, then I don’t think we’d need any inquiry into it, but that doesn’t appear to be what’s going on.”

The governing Liberals have been under fire for weeks about the eco fees, which range from a few cents to a couple of dollars.

The money helps fund a recycling program to divert potentially hazardous products such as fire extinguishers, laundry detergent and fertilizer from Ontario’s landfills.

The government gave Stewardship Ontario — an industry-led, not-for-profit organization that oversees the program — the power to collect the fees, which were first introduced in 2008 on a small number of items.

But Stewardship Ontario didn’t warn the public that the levy would be slapped on a wider array of products starting this month.

The “outsourcing” of environmental decisions to outside agencies needs to be examined, Miller said.

“We have to really look at this,” he said.

On Monday, Canadian Tire announced it would stop charging the fee, blaming the widespread confusion on a botched rollout and a complex fee structure that no one really understood.

Hours later, the government was signalling its retreat on the despised eco fee.

It’s yet another government stumble on the path to making Ontario more environmentally friendly, angering consumers and businesses and leading to embarrassing retreats.

Miller’s announcement came one day after he blasted the Liberals for slashing the guaranteed rate for small solar-panel projects by 27 per cent.

The Ontario Power Authority angered many green energy producers July 2 when it dropped a very lucrative guaranteed payment for ground-mounted solar energy projects from 80.2 cents a kilowatt hour to 58.8 cents. Only rooftop solar projects will qualify for 80.2 cents per kwh.

Earlier this year, the Liberals quietly introduced a new tax on electricity to raise $53 million for conservation and green energy programs.

It amounts to about $4 a year for the average household, but that still prompted the Opposition to call it another “sneaky tax grab.”

The Liberals have yet to deliver on their promise to close all of Ontario’s coal-fired electrical generating stations by 2007, a date that was pushed back several times in subsequent years and is now set for 2014.

Curious about Mark McEwan’s grocery store?

There are two words you need to know: Curry bar. It’s the antithesis of your typical, greasy fast food lunch on the go. The rotating selection of Indian-inspired dishes would appear more comfortably suited to a rajah’s table, but it’s all yours for the consuming (in an environmentally-friendly take-out container at that.) 

A particular highlight is the curry beef: Moist, rich, and savoury, it eschews the oiliness that can often accompany similar dishes. So pile it on high: Your basmati rice will thank you.

McEwan is located at 38 Karl Fraser Rd.