Results tagged “illegalsignsca”

In what IllegalSigns.ca's Rami Tabello is calling a "complete victory for Toronto," the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has ruled that outdoor ad company Strategic Media, among other offenses, "over the last year or so...began erecting signs without obtaining permits." Not that great of a strategy, really! In spite of Strategic's not-yet-resolved constitutional challenge to the City's sign by-law (which we explored the legality of in May), the court ruled that the City can begin removing Strategic's many illegal billboards across Toronto. Councillor Howard Moscoe, who we like more and more every day, told the Post that "we will go out and take them down and charge them on the tax bill if they don’t take them down themselves."

And Torontoist was there to make a video of it.

Rami Tabello of IllegalSigns.ca has teamed up with the New York–based Anti-Advertising Agency to create IllegalBillboards.org. According to Tabello's announcement, "the idea is to set up a blank web site, which can now be used by New York-based activists to keep track of research into illegal billboards and scrutiny of Department of Buildings enforcement." Tabello has already started taking a look at illegal ads in New York City over the past few weeks.

Spiral Beach have found themselves in a spot of trouble. As detailed a week and a half ago in both NOW and Eye, the band got hit with a $1470 bill [PDF] from EcoMedia Direct for putting up eight posters for last month's Opera House show on eight of the company's "SilverBox and Heritage Box Recycling Bins." Again, that's $1470 for eight small posters, like the one above made by Spiral Beach singer/keyboardist Maddy Wilde. As the letter from EcoMedia CEO Erich Genseberger emphatically points out, the bins "constitute private property," and the unauthorized postering is a "serious breach of [EcoMedia's] rights." The bill, sent to the Opera House and passed on to the band, listed the cost of "cleaning and removal of posters on boxes" as $780, "inspection and collection of evidence" as $320, and an "administration fee" of $300, plus $70 for GST.

Public relations is a tricky job, especially for the companies that operate illegal signs across Toronto. They've already got to deal with a site dedicated solely to putting an end to the practice, an increasingly aware and increasingly concerned populace, and those damned vandals who forgo legal means of dissent by dealing with the problem directly. So it comes as a bit of a surprise that Posterchild, a prominent member of (and advocate for) the lattermost group, has decided to lend a helping hand to add some much-needed accountability to the whole operation.

Street artist and former Torontoist contributor Fauxreel (which, contrary to what The Globe and Mail says, is not his real name; it's Dan Bergeron) received both a considerable amount of disdain and a considerable amount of cash recently (as well as some praise), when he designed and helped execute a nationwide corporate vandalism campaign on behalf of a well-known motorized vehicle brand. At the time, Torontoist attempted to contact "Mr. Reel" (as the Globe called him on second reference), for his side of the story, but he declined a request for a public interview. Which was too bad, because we really were very interested to hear his rationalization for his involvement.

Photo of a Koodo mobile ad by Marc Lostracco.

The province has ordered the City of Toronto to stop stonewalling in the face of freedom of information requests about allegedly illegal billboards.

Photo by Jonathan Goldsbie.

In this occasional feature, two Torontoist staffers face off to debate an issue that is important to our city. We invite our readers to join in the debate in the comments section after the post.