Toomas Karmo: Muzzo-family/Toomas Conciliation Project (DDO&P and Convict)

Quality assessment:



On the 5-point scale current in Estonia, and surely in nearby nations, and familiar to observers of the academic arrangements of the late, unlamented, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (applying the easy and lax standards Kmo deploys in his grubby imaginary "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimeline sangarliku raadio instituut" (the "Alexandr Stepanovitch Popov Institute of Heroic Radio") and his grubby imaginary "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevski nimeline sotsalitsliku matemaatika instituut" (the "Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky Institute of Socialist Mathematics") - where, on the lax and easy grading philosophy of the twin Institutes, 1/5 is "epic fail", 2/5 is "failure not so disastrous as to be epic", 3'5 is "mediocre pass", 4.5 is "good", and 5/5 is "excellent"): 4/5. Justification: There was enough time to make most of the desirable points. 


Revision history:

• UTC=20160812T140000Z/version 3.1.0: Kmo improved his account of the frightening YouTube video, depicting Mrs Dawn Muzzo, for the first time making it clear that although the video sheds light for all of us on the casework, it is itself a not wholly proper expression of a properly justified anger. 
• UTC=20160812T135300Z/version 3.0.0: Kmo updated his operational plan to accommodate the change in venue for the morning event (now Wellesley Park, not Kettle Lake Park), and added operationally important remarks regarding his cellular phone, and made a few tweaks of a semi-substantive character (involving diplomatic courtesies or similar matters of nuance), and corrected a minor error involving an incorrect conversion of EDT to UTC. He planned in the next few minutes to once again e-mail info@marel.to, bgreenspan@15bedford.com, 920@yrp.ca, 1873@yrp.ca, 2180@yrp.ca, info@yrp.ca, nuntiatura@nuntiatura.ca, archbishop@archtoronto.org, br.paul@augustinians.ca, joeg@augustinians.ca, and enza@augustinians.ca.
• UTC=20160810T135830Z/still version 2.0.0: Kmo brought the existence of this blog entry to the attention of Muzzo-family, police, and ecclesial authorities, by sending a private e-mail to info@marel.to, bgreenspan@15bedford.com, 920@yrp.ca, 1873@yrp.ca, 2180@yrp.ca, info@yrp.ca, nuntiatura@nuntiatura.ca, archbishop@archtoronto.org, br.paul@augustinians.ca, joeg@augustinians.ca, enza@augustinians.ca. 
• UTC=20160809T1450Z/version 2.0.0: Kmo made big changes, by adding some commentary on the developers' avowed intention not to sue Kmo, and also by adding commentary on the YouTube pillory which someone has inflicted on Mrs Dawn Muzzo. He retained hte right to make further small, essentially cosmetic, essentially nonsubstantive tweaks, as here-undocumented versions "2.0.1", "2.0.2", "2.0.3", ..., over the ensuing 48 hours. 
• UTC=20160809T0003Z/version 1.0.0: Kmo uploaded base version, while retaining the right to make further small, essentially cosmetic, essentially nonsubstantive tweaks, as here-undocumented versions "1.0.1", "`1.0.2", "1.0.3", ,..., over the ensuing 48 hours. 

[CAUTION: A bug in the blogger software has in some past weeks shown a propensity to insert inappropriate whitespace at some late points in some of my posted essays. If a screen seems to end in empty space, keep scrolling down. The end of the posting is not reached until the usual blogger "Posted by Toomas (Tom) Karmo at" appears.]

I have written elsewhere today on this blog about the need for reconciliation with Town Councillor Karen Cilevitz.

On the side of the aspiring DDO&P property developers themselves, we have the eminently Catholic DeGasperis and Muzzo families. It is these two families that are represented on a publicly recorded Board of Directors, as the people responsible for the relevant development company, "Corsica".

Corsica is itself the creation of DG Group, formerly known as "Metrus Development" or "Metrus Developments". I presume, subject to correction, that "DG" is here meant to suggest to the public the DeGasperis family name.  

I do not see a straightforward opportunity this week for establishing easy human relations with the DeGasperises.  This is a problem on which I will have to keep working.

I do, admittedly, note a happy point. Many months ago, I think at some stage in 2015, a certain male Town Councillor, not representing the DDO&P ward (Ward Six), happened to see in a cafe or restaurant some persons connected with the developer. He asked these persons whether they were contemplating legal action against "Tom Karmo". He received a reassuring denial, which he then took care to communicate to me. I am 70 percent sure that one or more of the persons at the table were, if not actual DeGasperises, then at any rate closely connected, both commercially and socially, with the DeGasperises. 

On the Muzzo side, a double opportunity now presents itself. On 2016-08-14 (SUN) there will be a relevant pair of public events in nearby King City. I should be able to reach both events through some combination of bus and hiking-with-backpack, along King City's semi-rural highways. Both events will be of some interest to the uncle and mother of convict Marco Muzzo.


Here are particulars:

• At EDT=11:00 (UTC=1500Z), there is to be a memorial for Marco Muzzo's victims. As reported at  at  http://www.yorkregion.com/news-story/6779653-king-city-creating-memorial-for-neville-lake-children-grandfather/, the event was originally planned for Kettle Lake Park in King City. Now, however, as reported at https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/08/11/hundreds-expected-to-honour-neville-lake-family-at-memorial.html and http://kingsentinel.com/?p=8125, the venue has been changed to Wellesley Park in King City, at 2330 King Road on the northwest corner of King Road and Keele Street, so as better to accommodate the expected large crowd. 
• At EDT=14:00 (UTC=1800Z), there is to be a set of ceremonies inaugurating and blessing the new Rosary Path at Marylake Shrine, on the grounds of the Marylake Augustinian Fathers. A concert of sacred music is to occupy the first hour. This to be followed by Eucharist (with His Eminence Cardinal Collins, our Archbishop, celebrating), and then by the formal blessing of the path. Finally, the Knights of Columbus are to run a BBQ-with-snack-bar. Pertinent advertising is at http://augustinians.ca/blessing-of-the-rosary-path/. 

The convict's mother, Mrs Dawn Muzzo, is introduced to the public in an alarming way at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTTK-0QChTU, in a short 2015-10-02 upload of YouTube user "Travels", under title "Come Dine with Me". Mrs Muzzo evidently once appeared on television, in a programme called "Come Dine with Me", and made a number of injudicious comments praising her own affluence, in the context of a programme of normal length. Some person burning with righteous anger in the autumn of 2015 then took the programme video and extracted Mrs Muzzo's injudicious comments, so as to highlight them in the short, cruel, YouTube clip. The anger, being righteous, was proper. Its YouTube expression was not fully proper, but does now, as I go on to explain, help all of us understand the case.

Poverty assumes various forms. There is financial poverty. There is the poverty of Donald Trump. There is the poverty of the wretches back home, under the occupation, who ran the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic - for instance, the son of the ideoloogiasekretär, the Tallinn "Secretary for Ideology", one "Ristlaan". It was said that this young man would race through the streets of Tallinn, revving his motor, in a machine on whose roof, side, boot, or bonnet was emblazoned the word "RISTLAAN".  And now we have a special and painful poverty in Mrs Dawn Muzzo. Close students of the Muzzo case, in particular at the Archdiocese, will have to view the YouTube clip and think about it. 

To the first of the two 2016-08-14 events, the Muzzo family will inevitably as good Catholics have to send at least one representative (perhaps the convict's mother, perhaps his uncle, perhaps both). The second would be an appropriately healing follow-on to the family's inevitably sad morning. 

At the second, although I imagine not at the first, the Archdiocese of Toronto will be represented (at the highest level, through His Eminence Archbishop Cardinal Collins; but there may also be other clergy from the Archdiocese offices, i.e., from the Cathedral offices). 

We must take at any rate the morning part of the day as an opportunity for me to confer briefly and sympathetically with the Muzzo family, seeking conciliation even while noting the harm they are continuing to inflict on our community through destroying 32 hectares of DDO&P.

They must realize that what is ultimately needed from them is a withdrawal from the project, so that ordinary citizens like me can embark on the hard task of reforestation. Our principal aim on the day, however, must only be to set up some kind of meeting between me and their convict son-and-nephew, whose desperate situation I cannot as a Catholic now ignore.

It would additionally be helpful if the Archdiocese could exchange a few quiet, prayerful words with me after Eucharist, late in the day, assuring me that all these miseries - DDO&P casework has cost me in addition to more serious things, such as a friendship with Karen Cilevitz,  also the bulk of my life savings (to the tune of 500,000 CAD or 550,000 CAD) - are in their prayers.

I accordingly form the following operational plan: 

((HOWTO))

!_Kmo to render himself instantly recognizable to all relevant personnel throughout the day by wearing his usual forest-brown knitted necktie, forest-green military shirt, and dark trousers, with his usual metal-rimmed spectacles, and additionally carrying a small forest-green knapsack with the appropriate personal supplies of food and water. 

!_Kmo to keep cell phone (647-267-9566) directly reachable at all times in the day, except for the period from the Marylake concert to the end of the Marylake Eucharist-and-Marian-blessing. (So he is, in particular, to have his cell phone on during the Knights of Columbus BBQ at Marylake, which starts after the Marian blessing is completed. - When the cell phone is not directly reachable, incoming calls are directed to voicemail.) 

!_Kmo to proceed to the morning event from his flat in Richmond Hill by some appropriate combination of bus and hiking, taking up his stand a little outside the edge of the crowd a little before 11:00 EDT (UTC=1500Z). 

!_Kmo to anticipate no relevant activity during the event, EXCEPT that some York Regional Police (YRP) personnel, in uniform or plainclothes, might conceivably choose to identify themselves to him for safety. Kmo to take it that if anyone stands beside him during the event, it will be only YRP personnel.

!_Kmo to linger for about ten minutes after the event, in the expectation that he may at this point be approached by Muzzo family bodyguards (such as were deployed by the family at Marco Muzzo's sentencing), or by Muzzo family lawyers, or by other Muzzo family representatives. In the event of such an approach, Kmo to encourage any YRP personnel standing beside him to remain present. Kmo to operate a plainly visible voice recorder in the event that persons connected with the Muzzo family engage him in conversation. Primary object of any conversation to be not a debate on DDO&P conservation, but merely the arranging of some quiet, supportive meeting between Kmo and the incarcerated Marco Muzzo. 

!_Kmo to proceed from the morning event to the afternoon event in the best way he can (probably on foot, unless YRP happens to appear and happens to offer him a lift - for instance, in back seat of police cruiser - or unless, alternatively, Muzzo family or some other non-government party happens to offer him a lift). 

!_Kmo to attend the afternoon event as a member of the crowd, rather than as a person outside the crowd. Kmo to linger after Eucharist and blessing for the Knights of Columbus BBQ-and-snack-bar. Kmo to look for friends from the Madonna House community in Toronto, but is not to regard his inevitable chat with them, or his possible additional chat with the local Augustinians, as a part of his formal conciliation operation. He is to regard as part of his formal conciliation operation only a possible chat with someone representing  the Archdiocese, at whatever level (the "Archdiocesan Personnel"). He is to leave it to Archdiocesan Personnel to make any approach, without himself trying to seize the initiative.  In the event of an approach, Kmo to listen respectfully to any advice which the Archdiocese may at that point offer him. Kmo to keep his voice recorder off in any conversation with Archdiocesan Personnel, treating the occasion as a normal instance of informal pastoral counselling.    

!_Kmo to disclose in the normally scheduled blog upload of UTC=20160816T0001Z/20160816T0401Z only in broad terms what happened at the two events - for instance, "(1) Was briefly greeted in morning by plainclothes officers #pqr and #stu of YRP, of respective ranks ABC and DEF. Also conferred briefly with two Muzzo family reps in presence of these officers, agreeing to contact Muzzo family lawyer Mr Brian Greenspan in October. (2) Was briefly counselled in afternoon, after Eucharist, by a member of clergy, of some senior or junior level or other, from the Archdiocesan offices." 

((/HOWTO))

What could go wrong with the plan? The worst that could happen is that nobody from the Muzzo family will approach me in the morning, and no Archdiocesan Personnel will approach me in the afternoon. This pair of developments would turn an initially happy day into a less happy one. 

But I have to go forward as best I can. Others will have to do their bit, too, in making sure we do not now let our double opportunity go to waste.