Toronto Mafia ?

There is something about Toronto that gives me the feeling that underground ventures have a bigger part in our lives than we realize. This notion was triggered by my finishing The Godfather by Mario Puzo. I promptly decided that Toronto, similar to New York with its many districts, must be propelled by at least some shady deals. There is so much more to this city than what appears on the surface.

What truly runs the city? When I think about it, my personal daily activities are dictated by a series of external factors, mostly institutions. We are slaves to our institutions. We need education, we need to eat, we need to party, we need 49 cent wings on Wednesdays. We rely on the hands that feed us to the point that we are no longer skeptical of any of it. We just need to look at the mountains of garbage building up on the street to realize just how painfully reliant we are on the city services. The city strike has forced us civilians to live in our own filth for the past month. We are entirely subject to the powers behind these institutions. “They” allow us to get a side of fries with our sandwich. “They” like us to print clearly on our tax return forms. “They” don’t approve of drinking in the park. Who are they, who posses such authority over our meagre city dwelling lives ?

There are just some people you can’t say no to. In the business world, ‘connections’ are building blocks to the top. It seems like every restaurant owner has infinite connections to other restaurant owners, event planners, salami dealers ... the list goes on. Where is the line between networking for the benefit of one’s business and hustling, plain and simple? Like the mafia, everyone running a business respects one another’s territory, sometimes borrowing a bag of milk here and there, asking a few small favours, but when it really comes down to it, deny the wrong man a request and you’ll fucking wake up with a horse head in your bed.

Overtly provocative companies like the Hot Box Cafe make me wonder - how can an organization that is based on entirely illegal activities thrive in the public sphere? That place has been raking in cash by the pile for nearly 10 years. I can only assume that operating such businesses is a matter of forming ‘friendships’ – a cycle of debts and favours owed and given. Everyone has a different idea of friendship, particularly when it comes to business. Illegal activities happen in broad daylight all the time. The dark figure of crime goes unnoticed; it’s always lost somewhere in the day to day shuffle.

But is it really just lost? I’m not sure yet. The Godfather taught me that those truly in power never show it to the world. So in the meantime, I remain highly sceptical of my Italian neighbours at College and Shaw, whose cooking smells like a dream, but whose wrath could be nothing less than nightmarish. Think twice before accepting the pizza that bubbles with the hot cheese of a con.