Although they crop up in other regions of the city, the 'professional agitator' is a breed that seems to flourish in the Toronto Beach.
They are active and vocal. They can harass and torment you. Like the tide in another kind of beach, they are inexorable. The professional agitator can effectively shut down your small business and drive you into bankruptcy.
Residents far outnumber business owners at municipal polling booths, one possible reason why some politicians and their bureaucrats seem to cave in to their demands.
Professional agitators are not always the little old lady busy-bodies living at the end of the lane.
Dr. Frank Loritz is an M.D., with professional offices at both the Beach Wellness Centre and the King's Medical Centre. Catering to a clientele from two locations and specializing in the treatment of sport's injuries, Loritz attends most Alcohol & Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) hearings when Beach bar and restaurant owners are on the hot seat.
Loritz, who seems to be the lynch-pin for the same, small diehard group of Beach residents, who write letters of complaint against area bar owners to the AGCO, describes himself as the self-appointed designated spokesman--not just for the small group but for the entire neighbourhood.
"Residents cannot always get time off work to be here," Loritz told Toronto Free Press at an AGCO hearing probing the 7th Wave Bistro on Feb. 3.
When asked how many neighbourhood residents he actually represented, Loritz declined to say.Asked why he attends almost all hearings against Beach area bar and restaurant owners, he responded that it was "nothing personal", adding that he did not want to be quoted in any Free Press article.
Loritz did not return Toronto Free Press telephone calls for this article. In fact, the doctor has not returned intermittent Toronto Free Press telephone calls since February, 1999.
Loritz made his first appearance at the former Liquor Licensing Board of Ontario (LLBO) probing the 7th Wave Bistro liquor licence on Jan. 9, 1997.
Since that time, the doctor has been dogged. He attended Committee of Adjustment and Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) hearings probing the 7th Wave Bistro, and owner William (Bill) Gallos says "he never missed a single one".
Loritz does not just favour 7th Wave Bistro hearings with his personal attendance. He also attended and gave testimony against the Just Desserts ACGO hearing on April 6, 1999. He attended, but did not give testimony, in hearings held into the liquor licence of Lion on the Beach.
Born August 25, 1961, Loritz lives in a neat, two-storey detached home at 75 Waverley Rd.
Pacing off the distance between the 7th Wave Bistro, Just Desserts and Lion on the Beach, the house at 75 Waverley is 18 houses and 200 yards south of Queen Street East.
It could be sensibly argued that Queen Street East cannot be seen, let alone heard by anyone inside the house at 75 Waverley.
In recorded ACGO testimony against the 7th Wave Bistro by Loritz on Feb. 3, 1999, the doctor likened the noise emanating from the bistro to "95 decibels" in intensity. Loritz testified he used a decibel device from a position across the street from the bistro.
Noise levels tabulated by a recent Transport Canada Study are as follows: 20 decibels is considered a still evening; 60 decibels is the sound of normal human conversation; 72 decibels is the noise made by an average household vacuum cleaner; 82 decibels would describe the Toronto Symphony; 92 decibels marks the noise made by city traffic, 110 decibels is the noise coming from a jackhammer. The noise from a Dash 7 aircraft registers 85 decibels, a Dash 8 is up around 90 and a 747 Boeing aircraft registers 93 decibels.
In other words, Dr. Frank Loritz testified that across-the-street noise from the 7th Wave Bistro, at 95 decibels, was more than the noise generated by a 747 Boeing aircraft!
Walter Hucker, of 150 Kenilworth Ave., who testified at the same ACGO hearing said his pregnant wife, crossed the street because she "fears" to go by the 7th Wave Bistro.
Hucker, who sat with Loritz at the Feb. 3 hearing and testified to having taken pictures of 7th Wave Bistro customers, without their knowledge during the last Jazz Festival, asked Toronto Free Press to "never run my photo in your newspaper".
No one can tell what motivates professional agitators.
At least two patients seen by Loritz tell Toronto Free Press that the doctor has a strong aversion to the serving of alcohol, but neither would allow their name to be used in this article.
Bar and restaurant owners suspect Loritz is in harmony with local Coun. Tom Jakobek, who has also attended AGCO hearings to testify against at least one of them. But Toronto Free Press has been unable to prove any significant link between Jakobek and Loritz.
On June 18, the AGCO and board members Randy Barber and Elaine Kiernans handed down their decision, ruling against the 7th Wave Bistro.
A decision is expected later this month on the Lion on the Beach hearing, which wrapped up after several days on June 25.
Jakobek predicted in a local Beach newspaper that Lion on the Beach, too, will lose.
..."Bruce, (Lion on the Beach owner) I suspect, will lose. If he wins good luck to him. But I suspect he will lose," said Jakobek.In other Beach battles, a petition with more than 700 signatures--500 of them from citizens in the Beach community at large--was paid no heed when Toronto community council flatly rejected a patio application from the owners of Sauvignon Bistro.
Said Lisa Baumal, legal counsel for Stephane Poquet and Gregoire Godin, co-owners of the tiny bistro directly across the street from the Greenwood housing development: "Their mistake was not kow-towing to Mr. Jakobek. They should have been nicer to him. It's his little fiefdom."
Meanwhile, both Jakobek and his ward mate Coun. Sandra Bussins seem not up for the fight on the mammoth $600,0000 bandshell slated for the centre of the new Woodbine Park, designated new site for future Beach festivals.
With an expected increase in cars, crowds and noise, some residents are uneasy. Jakobek says he has been telling residents all along that Beach festivals would be moved to the site.
Both Molsons and Labatts have indicated they would pay for the construction of the bandshell if they have exclusive rights to sell their products at park events for the next decade.
So far, professional agitators have not picketed either one of the beer giants.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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