Historicist: "The city that nobody loves"
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-Verse
This is Jörg Cieslok. He runs Titan Outdoor Canada. He is six and a half feet tall and has a thick German accent. He has a low opinion of "grassroots groups" like residents associations. He regularly calls up Rami to yell at him. He is more responsible for illegal billboards in Toronto than almost any other individual. He claims, under oath, to have lost $1 million due to sign bylaw enforcement. He threatened to sue Rami and is currently suing the City. And last night I learned that he is also an amateur paparazzo.
One of the first people to speak at the City Hall consultation on the new sign bylaw was Joe Clark, who began by explaining that many people are very cynical about the consultation process, and that one way for the Project Team to show they are serious about public input is to start discussing the possibility of enacting a virtual billboard ban, similar to Oakville's. At this moment, Jörg walked directly in front of Joe (who was sitting in between Rami and me) and, keeping his camera at waist level, took several flash pictures of him (us?). What made it extra weird was that he kept walking as he took the photos, as though it were one fluid motion, a bungled attempt to be casual about it. Jörg kept on going, right out the door.
Then, as Joe explains on Flickr, "I followed him out to the hall, and found him walking right back into the room. I took his picture." (The above, after he retook his seat.) Joe and Jörg got into a bit of a tiff in full view of everyone. City staff immediately stepped in to calm things down, and Joe and Jörg returned to their seats. Security was called and stayed posted near Jörg for most of the evening. The consultation, swarming with industry folks, continued as normal, with everyone behaving pretty well.
Until the end, that is, when a member of the City Hall press corps had his own run-in with Jörg, but you'll have to wait for that writer's own account of it.
In the meantime, try to make sense of this.
Photo by Joe Clark.
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Isn't there libel laws in Canada? This is a complete smear piece.
How could this possibly be libel? I don't see anything that can't be substantiated.
What on earth in this article is libelous?
Excellent Star Trek reference.
Matty, I don’t know why you’re so concerned about the impact Cieslok’s actions in a public forum might have on his reputation, but surely you are aware that true statements are never defamatory.
does anyone really care about this other than the anti-billboard sophists?
Jonathan,
Perhaps you could edit your article slightly? As it reads now, one infers from the text that the photograph of Jorg was taken as he walked back into the room:
"Then, as Joe explains on Flickr, "I followed him out to the hall, and found him walking right back into the room. I took his picture." (That is, the above.)"
However, the photograph is obviously of him sitting down. I read it a couple of times - so I think I understand that the photograph was taken after he'd re-entered and sat down, and maybe I'm easily confused, but it could be more clearly written. Perhaps the bracketed text referring to the photo could provide the reader with a sense that some time had elapsed between Cieslok's re-entry and re-seating.
andrew - It's a quote.
matty, you're really bad at concern trolling. Get some practice and come back again later.
Thickslab, I wouldn't say that to Matty if I we're you.
Andrew, I applaud your CSI-like concern for true evidentiary timelines, but I think it’s pretty obvious I took his picture after he got back in the room.
Thanks for the suggestion, Andrew.
I've changed it from "That is, the above" to "The above, after he retook his seat."
I forgot - disagreeing with torontoist = trolling.
Keep on keeping on, fellas.
No, Matty, interjecting unrelated topics = trolling. (Elect Ron Paul!)
Also, disagreeing with me = trolling. Don't you forget it!
yes you've made that clear.
Sorry to be pedantic. I figure if you're gonna catch flack you might as well be as tight as you can, and the rest of the article seems airtight.
You are going to catch flack for this, right? I didn't go to all the effort for nothin'.
Now that you've taken all these pictures of each other, are you gonna be facebook friends?
Bah! More of Goldsbie and his fascist friends. Toronto's a pretty cool place, but it quickly looses its awesomeness when you find out the anti-capitalist crusaders want to dictate how you can use your property.
I don’t crusade at all, let alone against capitalism.
No one asked me, but you get my opinion anyways(ain't the internet great?), somewhat in response to Pickletoes:
I could give a shit about where ads are placed. Advertising doesn't really bother me, I'm quite successful at tuning it out.
What I care about is corporations breaking the law with seeming impunity, if it wasn't for the vigilance of private citizens. I'm glad illegalsigns.ca exists, even though it's necessity makes our city bylaw officials an embarassing joke. If more people spoke out about the problem, perhaps it would become less of an issue, faster.
They may be breaking the law. But they're breaking a law that probably shouldn't exist in the first place.
andrew: No apologies necessary. I appreciated your suggestion.
You are going to catch flack for this, right?
So far only from matty and PickleToes, but that's not really any sort of achievement.
Well this is Torontoist. You're pretty much preaching to the choir, right?
Hail PickleToes, decider of which laws should and should not be followed.
Great PickleToes: please tell me which other laws I should not follow.
Love Joe Clark's passive/aggressive online threat to this guy on the flickr link posted above.
>Pull that shit again, Jörg, and you’ll have bigger problems than Rami fucking Tabello
ACTUALLY! HES 6 8 NOT 6 6! OK? Now you can shut your mouth because you have no right. Just because hes WAYYY more succesfull then you ammeatures! So do something better in your life then look at succesfull men and wish you were them! GOOD DAY
Anyone can tell your a idiot! If you said "Sitting between Rami and ME!" Nice.
Billboard company trolls are the best.
Actually you can really tell hes rich and succesful and your a loser that wants to be more like him. Because look at the Porche key sitting right next to him. So. Go suck a cow.
Even look at the beautiful porche and yaght in my picture Mr Jorg Cieslok owns. Isn't it just nice? ;)
polkadots aka jorg
you're a douche.
This is not Jorg. BTW! Your a idiot too because I have spelling mistakes that ovbiously you wouldn't no to spell so you cant tell the difference. Go fuck your mom
My statement of June 3rd stands.
(Oh, and for anyone wondering, I'm pretty sure this is the reason why there are suddenly new comments on this post.)