Save Captain John!

Of the many ongoing indignities inflicted upon John Q. Public by municipal/civic councils in North America, Toronto Council’s inhumane treatment of ‘Captain John’ Letnik’s cries out loudest for retribution.

Why is it that the so-called senior levels of government almost always cut and run when their thieving, unprincipled and over-bearing junior counterparts at the voter-apathy-protected civic level are going so far out of their way to torment their own citizens? They say ‘You can’t fight city hall and win’. In truth, you can’t even count on their not cutting your water off. First the compassionate souls who inhabit Toronto City Council chambers cut off Captain John’s water, then they seized his boat. In the ‘Me Society’ now dominating social media networks, not many will care that on-the-public-teat-forever councillors like Councillor Pam McConnell will get to write the final chapters in the life of a man who gave so much to Toronto, including as National Post commenter John Erb says, “a million dollars in questionable taxes to the city”.

---

“Is dockage so valuable in Toronto that a Heritage object is considered too ugly, Erb wrote. “Captain John has already paid a million dollars in questionable taxes to the city. For the city to seize the boat will be a LandMark case. Captains of other boats beware...Toronto has claimed eminent domain on the waters of Lake Ontario!” It isn’t that the heritage-protected site, Captain John’s waterfront restaurant on a ship is ugly, it’s that all that Letnik stands for is ugly to some. A refuge before age 15 in Austria, Letnik fled the former Yugoslavia. One year to the day he escaped to Austria, he first stepped foot on Canadian soil in Quebec City with $2 in his pocket. He was a dishwasher at St. George’s Golf & Country Club in Etobicoke before opening the Pop Inn, at McCaul and Dundas Streets. In 1970, he opened his first seafood restaurant in an old fire boat, the MS Normac. In 1981, the city ferry Trillium rammed that boat and sank it. Not letting discouragement from bad luck stand in his way, Letnik searched for two years before buying the MS Jadran, a 355-cabin passenger vessel in 1975--sailing it to Toronto from Yugoslavia and tying it to the foot of Yonge Street where it has floated ever since. Between attempts at trying to sink it in miles of red tape, local councillors always threw their lavish fundraising parties at Captain John’s. Toronto council, which last year cut off its water, effectively shutting the restaurant down, even as Captain John still slept nights there, are now one year later trying to make its closure permanent. In his National Post comment, Erb posits: “Pam McConnell seems to have a personal vendetta against the boat.” McConnell and fellow councillors would like to make Captain John a ghost of the past, cutting off all sustenance in his present. The leftwing media has had a field day poking fun at the proponent of the Captain John story. They say his name isn’t even Captain John, but if that name is good enough for the thousands of school children who toured his boat for free, it should be good enough for the reporters who get to ridicule his fate. Nothing describes Captain John more eloquently than the opening sentences on SaveCaptainJohn.com: “Captain John has faced hardship his entire life, but has succeeded in bringing his dreams to reality. A refugee before the age of 15, he opened Toronto’s first floating restaurant in 1970. Even when his dreams were just that, he has always managed to survive. John knows how lucky he is and has always tried to share his good fortune with those in need. Now circumstances beyond his control threaten his ability to walk off his ship and retire with dignity. “Despite his 40 years of fair and generous public behaviour, Captain John is being unfairly persecuted. Without notice the city has cut off his water, forcing his restaurant to close, and leaving him without any income or means to support himself.” Yours Truly can attest to Captain John’s “40 years of fair and generous public behaviour”. With my own newspaper, making me the proverbial skunk at the garden party among Toronto municipal politicians, I once attended a party for a local councillor at Captain John’s. When one of the prominent councillors of the day spotted ‘the enemy’, he came over to the table where I sat with a colleague, ordering me out. As I was collecting my handbag and notebook to leave, a man, then a stranger to me, came over and told the politician, “You can leave and this lady stays”. The councillor left in a rage. It was Captain John who sent him off, and when I thanked him for his chivalry to me, he said, “No lady will ever be booted off my ship by a politician as long as I am the captain.” Toronto council’s seizing of Captain John’s ship will likely be fought out in court. But as Letnik and others who have faced the city in court before know, the city has oodles of lawyers, paid for by taxpayer dollars, and anyone fighting for justice against them, is embroiled in a David/Goliath battle. The city loses, it appeals, and keep right on appealing until you’re bankrupt. Captain John has been there before: “I was in court with the city for eight years. We went to trial..then I went to the appeal court two years later with another lawyer. We had another appeal...in the federal court in front of three judges and all three judges favoured me. I received a unanimous decision, and that was not enough. They took me to the Supreme Court..just the transcript to prepare cost me $35,000.” Captain John is 74 years old. Where are you Mayor Rob Ford? Letnik had a buyer for the boat. “The buyer for the boat is not the problem. But they don’t want to give me a location. They don’t want to give me a lease,” he explains. What Captain John really needs is a Donald Trump with big pockets and the stones to take on devious government bureaucrats and their lawyers. The Save Captain John! homepage pleads: “Don’t let this captain go down with his ship!” The many who admire Captain John for who he is would add: “Don’t let politicians write the remaining chapters of his life!”