99-year-old woman critically injured after being struck by vehicle in Toronto's east end
A 99-year-old woman is in life-threatening condition after being hit by a vehicle in Toronto's east end on Tuesday afternoon.
Toronto police say they were called to the area of Victoria Park and Sunrise avenues for reports of a pedestrian being struck.
The woman was crossing Sunrise Avenue when she was struck by a northbound Mercedes Benz making a left turn.
She was rushed to a local trauma centre with critical injuries, paramedics say.
The driver of the Mercedes, a 40-year-old man, remained at the scene, police say.
The investigation is ongoing.
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Ottawa Citizen
20 minutes ago
- Ottawa Citizen
Canadian conman flees U.S. sentencing after learning how long his prison term might be
Article content A Toronto-area conman skipped his sentencing hearing in a U.S. court, for helping swindle more than $21 million from hundreds of victims, after prosecutors alleged he kept scamming people even after his arrest and guilty plea. Article content Antonio Palazzolo, 67, did not appear in U.S. federal court in Cleveland on May 8, when he was expected to be sentenced for the large, sophisticated investment swindle pulled by a gang of Toronto-based conmen. Article content Article content What was supposed to be his long-delayed sentencing hearing after his guilty plea in 2022 turned into an abrupt five-minute session when Palazzolo failed to join Judge J. Philip Calabrese, two U.S. prosecutors and his own lawyer in court. Article content Article content Calabrese said an arrest warrant would be issued, making him a fugitive. Article content If Palazzolo had shown up, he would have heard prosecutors tell the judge that the U.S. government no longer supports a reduced sentence because 'he has continued to engage in similar fraudulent conduct since pleading guilty in this case,' according to a government memo filed in court a week before the hearing. Article content Prosecutors said Palazzolo kept pulling an almost identical fraud as the one he pleaded guilty to while he remained free in Canada on an unsecured US$20,000 bond while awaiting his sentencing. Article content As his hearing approached, three victims contacted U.S. authorities, two claiming he had ripped them off for big bucks and another that Palazzolo was trying to defraud him as recently as late April, the judge was told. Article content Article content One victim showed the government an invoice from Palazzolo for US$10,000 for a pink diamond dated April 24, according to court records. That's just two weeks before his scheduled court date. Article content Article content Palazzolo's sentencing in Ohio was scheduled after his wire fraud conspiracy conviction from his time as a crooked salesman with Paragon International Wealth Management, Inc., a Toronto firm where he went by the alias John Carson. He and other conmen duped victims in Canada and the United States into buy coloured diamonds for much more than they were worth. Article content The new allegations say that after a Toronto police raid on Paragon's Finch Avenue West telemarketing offices in 2018, Palazzolo kept tricking gullible investors into sending him huge sums for low-value stones using his own company, called Pavillion Diamonds International.
Vancouver Sun
29 minutes ago
- Vancouver Sun
Canadian conman flees U.S. sentencing after learning how long his prison term might be
A Toronto-area conman skipped his sentencing hearing in a U.S. court, for helping swindle more than $21 million from hundreds of victims, after prosecutors alleged he kept scamming people even after his arrest and guilty plea. Antonio Palazzolo, 67, did not appear in U.S. federal court in Cleveland on May 8, when he was expected to be sentenced for the large, sophisticated investment swindle pulled by a gang of Toronto-based conmen. What was supposed to be his long-delayed sentencing hearing after his guilty plea in 2022 turned into an abrupt five-minute session when Palazzolo failed to join Judge J. Philip Calabrese, two U.S. prosecutors and his own lawyer in court. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Calabrese said an arrest warrant would be issued, making him a fugitive. If Palazzolo had shown up, he would have heard prosecutors tell the judge that the U.S. government no longer supports a reduced sentence because 'he has continued to engage in similar fraudulent conduct since pleading guilty in this case,' according to a government memo filed in court a week before the hearing. Prosecutors said Palazzolo kept pulling an almost identical fraud as the one he pleaded guilty to while he remained free in Canada on an unsecured US$20,000 bond while awaiting his sentencing. As his hearing approached, three victims contacted U.S. authorities, two claiming he had ripped them off for big bucks and another that Palazzolo was trying to defraud him as recently as late April, the judge was told. One victim showed the government an invoice from Palazzolo for US$10,000 for a pink diamond dated April 24, according to court records. That's just two weeks before his scheduled court date. Palazzolo's sentencing in Ohio was scheduled after his wire fraud conspiracy conviction from his time as a crooked salesman with Paragon International Wealth Management, Inc., a Toronto firm where he went by the alias John Carson. He and other conmen duped victims in Canada and the United States into buy coloured diamonds for much more than they were worth. The great Paragon swindle and its cavalcade of conmen is the focus of an in-depth investigative feature in National Post published last summer, called Jack of Diamonds. The new allegations say that after a Toronto police raid on Paragon's Finch Avenue West telemarketing offices in 2018, Palazzolo kept tricking gullible investors into sending him huge sums for low-value stones using his own company, called Pavillion Diamonds International. Alleged victims complained to investigators of a scheme that played out the same as the one pulled at Paragon. Customers were contacted by phone and convinced to make a small purchase of a pink diamond and were later lied to about how much that gem had increased in value in order to convince customers to send much larger sums of money — over and over — in hopes of a promised big payday that never came, court was told. After a series of payments from one new complainant, the customer's adult daughter became concerned and discovered his involvement in the Paragon fraud. She then secretly recorded a phone call with Palazzolo, prosecutors said. On the call he allegedly said he was the owner of Pavillion Diamonds. She asked him if the name Paragon meant anything to him. He allegedly told her he had worked there but had been 'exonerated' from any wrongdoing. She then called the FBI. Palazzolo's contact with that complainant allegedly stretched from 2018 until 2023, which was after his guilty plea. Another customer said he was convinced to spend US$115,000 in April 2022 on a diamond that a Pavillion salesman promised would double in value within a year, prosecutors alleged. In June 2024, long after his guilty plea, Palazzolo allegedly contacted that customer again with an offer to sell the diamond for a payout. There was a catch. The customer had to first purchase another diamond for US$63,700 because the purported buyer wouldn't purchase anything less than two carats of diamond weight. The man sent him the money, court heard. Prosecutors said the government could no longer support lowering Palazzolo's recommended sentence for accepting responsibility, as often happens when someone pleads guilty. 'A defendant's commission of new crimes related to the offense of conviction while on bond is inconsistent with acceptance of responsibility,' James Lewis, Assistant United States Attorney, wrote in the prosecution's sentencing memo. 'Given that Palazzolo has continued to engage in similar fraudulent conduct since pleading guilty, the government opposes Palazzolo receiving any reduction for acceptance of responsibility. 'The impact of this crime on Paragon's victims was profound.' Palazzolo was born in Rome, Italy. He got married at the age of 23 and had two children. After living in several countries, he moved to Canada in 1991, court heard. He completed high school in Toronto and lived in Pickering, just east of Toronto, at the time of his arrest. At a hearing in 2022 in Cleveland when he pleaded guilty on a video link from Canada, he said he didn't have a job. 'I am helping my wife in her business,' Palazzolo said at his sentencing hearing. 'We are formally separated, but we live in the same house. So, I help her with her business, and I do everything at the house.' Palazzolo's wife's business is an online jewelry store, court was told. At that 2022 hearing, prosecutors itemized his duplicity and scamming while working at Paragon, and listed huge payments gullible victims put on their credit cards and sent by wire transfers. After hearing it all, the judge asked him: 'Are all those things true? Did you do those things and say those things? 'I did,' said Palazzolo. 'I'm here trying to make amends for what happened, and I'm trying to cooperate in every possible way that I can,' Palazzolo told the judge back then. The stage seemed set for an easy sentencing process. A pre-sentence report for Palazzolo, however, calculated an unexpectedly high sentencing range for him — much harsher than for his co-conspirators in the Paragon fraud, even before the government moved for a tougher sentence because of alleged new frauds. James Gagliardini, the founding boss of Paragon, was sentenced to 54 months in a U.S. prison in October; Michael Shumak, another founding partner, was sentenced to 60 months in February. Jack Kronis, a career conman who was a star salesman at Paragon after his long history in multiple frauds in several countries, was sentenced to 37 months in November. Edward Rosenberg, another salesman, was sentenced to 34 months last month. Palazzolo seemed to be expecting similar treatment. Instead, the guideline range fell hard on him. The low end was calculated at 108 months, which is a stiff nine years in prison. The high end was 135 months, more than 11 years. In his sentencing memo to the judge, filed before the aborted sentencing hearing, Palazzolo's Cleveland lawyer, Michael Goldberg, complained of the disparity in sentencing guideline ranges for other members of the Paragon gang. 'Mr. Palazzolo has less culpability than several co-defendants who received sentences below Mr. Palazzolo's guideline range,' Goldberg wrote. 'He was not an organizer or leader of the scheme. He is less culpable for the losses caused by the scheme than several co-defendants who received sentences below Mr. Palazzolo's guideline range.' Goldberg also said that Palazzolo accepts responsibility. 'He is remorseful for his actions. He understands that restitution will be part of his sentence, and intends to do everything he can to repay his victims for their losses,' Goldberg wrote. Goldberg declined to comment to National Post when asked about his client not showing up at his sentencing hearing. So did the U.S. Attorney's office and the FBI, citing the ongoing nature of the case. There is no evidence that Palazzolo has returned to U.S. custody. No new information has been filed in court in his case. Prosecutors said the amount of money swindled from Paragon's victims attributed to Palazzolo was about US$1.5 million dollars. U.S. court documents spell Palazzolo's alleged company as Pavillion. There is a lawsuit filed in Ontario court that alleged a diamond investment fraud against Palazzolo and a company with a slightly different spelling, Pavilion Diamonds International. • Email: ahumphreys@ | Twitter: AD_Humphreys Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our newsletters here .
CTV News
30 minutes ago
- CTV News
Crime bill with tougher bail, sentencing provisions coming in fall: justice minister
Minister of Justice Sean Fraser responds to a question in the House of Commons in Ottawa on Thursday, June 19, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Patrick Doyle OTTAWA — The Liberal government will table a bill this fall introducing stricter bail conditions and sentencing for some crimes, particularly those involving organized crime, human trafficking, home invasion and car theft, Justice Minister Sean Fraser said in an interview. 'It's perhaps obvious, given the tenor around the criminal justice system, that reforms are in order,' Fraser told The Canadian Press. The government will consider including additional reforms but 'at minimum' will implement the crime policies the Liberals promised during the spring federal election, Fraser said. Fraser was named justice minister by Prime Minister Mark Carney in May, following an election campaign which saw Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre blame the Liberals for a wave of violent crime. In their campaign platform, the Liberals in turn promised to make bail more difficult to get for some offences, including car thefts involving violence or organized crime, home invasions, and some human trafficking and smuggling offences. They also promised tougher sentencing guidelines for repeat car thieves and violent and organized crime, and to allow for consecutive sentencing for some cases of car theft and for serious and violent offences. Fraser said some parts of the country have seen an increase in certain kinds of criminal activity. 'Auto thefts, though they may be down in the GTA this year compared to last, we have seen a trend where it was becoming a bigger problem,' he noted, adding some of that was driven by organized crime. The changes to the law will establish a stronger deterrent, Fraser said. 'It's not just a reaction to something you read about in a headline,' he said. 'It's meant to send a signal to deter problematic behavior that you want to address, to help people feel safe.' Fraser said the government will consult on its plans and he's open to suggestions based on expertise and evidence. This bail reform plan comes two years after the Liberals introduced other bail-reform legislation in 2023. That came after calls from provincial leaders and many police chiefs to make bail more difficult to access for repeat violent offenders. The bill, which took effect in January 2024, made changes to bail for some firearms and weapons offences, and some circumstances in which the alleged crime involves intimate partner violence. The plan to introduce tougher measures comes after years of Conservatives accusing the Liberals of taking a 'soft' approach to crime. Asked whether the coming legislation amounts to an admission the Conservatives had a point, Fraser said he views it 'differently.' 'We hear from Canadians more broadly that there is a challenge with the criminal justice system,' he said. 'There is a challenge with the bail system.' Fraser said that while he takes issue with what he called the Conservatives' 'simplistic' slogans, Canadians across the country have 'real concerns' that can't be dismissed 'just because it's being raised in the House of Commons in a way that some may find inconvenient.' He said that while there are areas where the federal government can do more, provincial governments — some of which have called for federal bail reform — have a big role to play. That role includes making sure judges and justices of the peace who make bail decisions have proper training, and detention centres have enough capacity, Fraser said. 'We want to come into this conversation knowing that we've taken care of the challenges that fall within the federal government's purview, but we also want to enter a conversation with provinces and territories to say that we are not the only cook in the kitchen,' he said. Fraser added the federal government also wants to bring provinces and territories together to work on gathering the data needed to address crime and justice issues at the local level. 'The circumstances in rural Nova Scotia may not reflect the circumstances in downtown Toronto or in Canada's North,' he noted. The federal government wants to take a wider approach to crime prevention that also addresses mental health, addictions, youth employment and affordable housing, Fraser said. 'We also want to make sure that we go upstream and prevent fewer people from falling into a criminal lifestyle,' he said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 25, 2025. Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press
