quote:
In keeping with our innovative practice of dealing with bullies who have lots of money for lawyers, we have chosen to respond to Joe publicly
...Welcome to the workers' media.
Innovation and a great catch-phrase!
MFD rocks!! 
Mount Mondo Erupts
Mount Mondo Erupts
This just in -
MfD has received an email from Joe Ieradi, the Toronto builder who is behind the hotel conversion project that has been the subject of our ongoing Mondo Condo series. Under the heading:
MFD Articles- Mondo Condo Makeover, Mondo Condo Makeover P.02, P.03, P.04, P.05, P.06, Joe wrote:
Please be advised that we require the names and addresses of all persons contributing to the above mention (sic) articles. The articles are misguided and their accusations are false. As a result of these articles huge costs have been incurred by the builder through loss of sales and cancelations (sic). It is important that you provide this information in a prompt manner. Failure to do so will result in legal action. Westmount-Keele Limited
Joe also followed up with a phone call to MfD's web administrator Kelsey Sigurdur. During the phone call, Joe threatened that if MfD didn't cough up the names, he's going to sue. "I've got a lot of money for lawyers", he stated. In response to Kelsey's question about what, if anything, in the artilces was false, Joe said it didn't matter whether anything was false or not. He didn't like the articles and he's going after whoever wrote them. He doesn't have a beef with us but if we don't tell him, he'll sue just the same.
In keeping with our innovative practice of dealing with bullies who have lots of money for lawyers, we have chosen to respond to Joe publicly:
Dear Westmount Keele;
We have received your request and are giving it the consideration it deserves. Considering what you are asking for, you could at least have put your name on it. Before we give you an official reply we'd like you to tell us why we should give our online contributors' confidential personal information to bullies-with-lotsa-money-for lawyers-when:
1. We have a privacy policy that says we won't. Many of our contributors choose to write anonymously or under pseudonyms to avoid retaliation - like arbitrary dismissal, frivolous lawsuits, even violence. We understand and respect their wishes. Why would we tell you - of all people - where any of them live?
2. We believe that people should be free to express themselves without harassment from loudmouths who have lotsa money for lawyers. So giving in to your demands would be against everything we stand for.
3. It would send the wrong message to other bullies. Have you any idea how many santimonious big shots with lotsa money for lawyers we piss off in the course of an average week? Shit man, you could fill the ACC with them. If we let you push us around, they'll all think we're going mainstream and we can't have it like that.
4. You have not told us what words, phrases and statements in any of the six articles are false. So come on. Make with the particulars or it will look like you don't have any.
5. Most of the articles you've cited are not about you. They're about the UFCW, its pension plan and the former owners of the hotel, Ronald Kelly, York Hannover Hotels and Castor Holdings--all of whom are infamous in their own right and all of whom have taken their toll on many many working people. We're really big on stories about things that affect the lives of workers. There's a big story about things that affected the lives of workers at 2737 Keele St. When you got involved - and you are involved - you became part of the story.You decided to buy a place with a colourful past and a controversial present. Didn't the former owners tell you everything about anything that might be relevant to your success - you know, that "due diligence" thing? If they didn't, maybe you should sue them.
6. People have a constitutional right to express themselves - even if it makes bullies with lotsa money for lawyers angry. If you don't like it, see if you can have the constitution amended. Then come back and see us.
And finally,
7. Why should we believe you when you say that "as a result of these articles huge costs have been incurred by the builder through loss of sales and cancellations" when we've caught you lying to the media before?
Remember this? It was in the Toronto Star on May 1, 2004:
As a construction labourer, Joe Ieradi helped build the Triumph Hotel on Keele St. at Wilson Ave. in North York in 1975. This year, he bought the 10-storey hotel and is now in the process of converting it into an innovative condominium residence.
The reality was that you didn't buy the hotel earlier that year or even later than year.You didn't buy it until February 2005. So, what that means is that you lied about something big (like buying a hotel) in the media. Now that's what we call some mighty bold bullshitting.We know that may sound harsh. But we're not inclined to be kind to bullies with lotsa money for lawyers. Face it: Saying you bought a hotel when you didn't buy a hotel is lying. It takes balls to lie like that.
When we visited your sales center later in May 2004, your sales representative told us that your company, Dacapa Construction, owned the hotel. That was another lie. Dacapa Construction has never owned the hotel.
Whatever your intentions might have been, we figure that a savvy businessman like you knows the difference between owning a building and not owning a building. In May 2004, you didn't own that building but that didn't stop you from saying you did.
If you can lie like a rug about that to the nation's largest daily newspaper we sure wouldn't put it past you to distort reality with us when it suits you. Huge costs? Lost sales? Cancellations... because of the Mondo articles? Sounds like bullshit to us. According to your ads, you were selling up a storm during the time that the six Mondo articles you're whining about were online. The big sign in front of your hotel says 88% SOLD just like it did last month and the month before that. That is true isn't it? Then what have you lost, except what little respect we might ever have had for you?
The bottom line is Joe, you went seeking publicity in the national media. We caught you lying about something big. The whole Mondo Condo series started with the question: "Are (UFCW) Pension Gurus Backing Job Destruction Scheme?". The next question was: "Who is this guy and why's he saying he bought the hotel when he didn't?" You drew the spotlight. Now you're going to live in it.
And don't tell that you're not involved. You are involved with the UFCW and its pension plan. You've borrowed millions of dollars from them. They're financing your project. You're part of their scheme - one that involved the destruction of a lot of people's livelihoods. Their part in this loathesome scheme is going to be exposed so that the people know what happened. You're in the story because you decided to be part of it.
Think you can shake us down because you've got lotsa money for lawyers? Now you're lying to yourself.
So what do you have to say?You can respond to our questions in the discussion thread accompanying this post. We'll respond to your request once you've answered our questions. So come on. The world is waiting. Welcome to the workers' media.
Hey if any of you from MFD are interested in moving out to Northern Ca and running for Prez in local 588 let me know you definitly got my vote You guys are awesome!!! Hey maybe you can get this to air on 60 min. or something like that what do ya think? Keep up the good work and thanks for being here MFD!
Our aim is to blaze a path for our community to provide information and venues for discussion to people who have been muzzled and kept in the dark by the oppressors and their helping hands. It's also to develop ways and means to neutralize the tactics and strategies that the oppressors use to keep our news out of the mainstream media. It's bad enough that the msm doesn't consider us or our lives newsworthy (except when we either die in some newsworthy way or when we are props in the stories of the "worthy") but it's remarkable how easy it is to suppress stories simply through threats of legal action.
All you have to do is call up the appropriate functionary in the newsroom, radio or TV station and say, "My client is a power and well-known organization. If you print that story, we will sue you. " An alternative is to call and say, "The people in that story are nutbars with radical ideas in their heads. Print that story and your organization will be made to look like you're in cahoots with them."
No kidding people. I've heard it with my own ears.
That is why it's so important that an alternative media - a real media - develops within our communities.
Thanks from all the core MFD'ers for your good reviews and ongoing support. Feel free to write some stuff, tell your stories, raise some shit, scare some oppressors and otherwise help this phenomenon grow.
Remote Viewer that would explain when this event was organized by a retiree and supported by some rank n file
http://groceryworkers.org/Members/RankNfile/DSC00860.JPG/view even though the local media and news paper showed up and covered the story it was never aired. But thats ok Labornotes did a picture article and we did a leaflet with a pic the story still got out there!
Geez, I'm quite certain ~Song For The Week~ will never have the funds to compete with this!
It could be a long week to review the charts. Last week Mr. Springsteen came in at #1 with Devils and Dust. Mr. John Prine came in at #55 with Fair and Square.
Ya'll just want to listen to them all at the same time, over and over again - make sure you have the lyrics correct.
Ain't audio wonderful! All the reviews - for all artists, I cannot wait to read. I'm certain ~Five Stars~ for everyone will be in order!
Don't ya think? 
Hey was anyone else impressed with Joe Ieradi loving the articles so much that he actually faxed them to an unknown fax machine? I wonder how many new readers were directed to MFD with that free advertisement. Brilliant! It shows that he really does love the articles... he's just expressing it in subtle ways.
More Joe weirdness...
-he seems to be totally unaware that a Mondo Condo Pt. 7 and 8 exist. Either he thinks the series ended late last year... or he thinks the last two are less 'false'?
-wasn't Hugh's interview over the phone? Weren't there gulls in the background? How many press interviews does this guy do to confuse them so easily?
sleK, time limit has expired. You're in lawsuit trouble!
Why is it that everything that Joe touches seems to not go so well ?:
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[57] As a result, Sheppard Group asked Noblestar to consult with Helyar and determine if a letter of credit would suffice instead of a bond. The bonding issue held up payment of progress draw number 2 due at the end of October. Sheppard Group then purported to serve a notice of default under the contract.[26] In the meantime Sheppard Group appears to have decided to deal with the situation by submitting letters of guarantee - one covering Telco from Chemical Guard Industries and the other covering Sheppard Group from C.H.I. Cherry Hill Investments Ltd.[27] Neither of those entities are licenced bonding companies or recognized financial institutions. Both appear to be controlled by someone named Joseph Ieradi and in fact Chemical Guard Industries appears to have been dissolved in 1994.[28] Mr. Mak investigated those bonds and this information became known to Noblestar in December of 2000. Despite Mr. Kwan's vigorous denial, these bonds were obviously worthless and I so find.
[58] The evidence falls short of proving that Sheppard Group knowingly committed fraud but it certainly knew or ought to have known that the so-called letters of credit were of no value. The amount charged for the Telco and Sheppard Group "bonds" is $7,144.82 inclusive of GST. Noblestar is entitled to a refund of this amount.
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A Letter of Credit (LC) is a document issued by your bank that essentially acts as an irrevocable guarantee of payment to a beneficiary. This means that if you do not perform your obligations, your bank pays. The letter of credit can also be the source of repayment of the transaction meaning that the exporter will get paid with the redemption of the letter of credit.
So let me see if I have this thing straight. This Joe guy types up a couple of pieces of paper that promise that Joe's live and defunct companies will cough up the dough to cover the project costs?
This is the same Joe that gets the Mondo Condo building for no money down and no payments for a long, long time. And if he can't make the payments after that, the CCWIPP will cut him even more slack because he doesn't have the capability or collateral to pay.
Why the hell would the CCWIPP not only sell the building to this dude, but they loan him a wad of dough to boot?
I wonder if he used letters of credit to secure his loan to the CCWIPP and the TELUS guys?