LEVY: Euchregate latest insanity from Parks and Rec

Torontosun.com
August 9, 2019
Sue-Ann Levy

First the city’s dysfunctional Parks and Rec department brought us Stepgate.

Now let me introduce you to Euchregate.

A group of card-playing seniors are under investigation by a team of Scarborough Community Recreation supervisors, led by Cheryl Gillis, her manager, as well as city legal and the city’s Gaming Services division (with help from Alcohol and Gaming Ontario).

Their crime?

Paying $1.25 to play three hours of euchre at a succession of Scarborough community centres.

I kid you not.

Betty Bennett and her husband Christopher Cronk say Euchregate started in May -- in response to an anonymous complaint.

Cronk said he’s heard it was from a woman who lost $35 -- her grocery money -- playing poker and her son.

“All of a sudden some overzealous bureaucrat made an inane decision,” he said.

The afternoon euchre game at Scarborough Village Community Centre is the target of the City of Toronto and the players have been told they can only play for 25 cents not their usual $1.25 on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2019. (Craig Robertson/Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network)

Bennett said Thursday when I visited their game at Scarborough Village community centre that some participants have been playing this way for as long as 20 years at Scarborough’s community centres.

The money collected goes into a pot and depending on the number who play (there are up to 10 tables), the highest scoring player could end up with no more than $30 or $40 (far less if they have to split the pot).

Cronk says an edict came out from the city’s Community Recreation staff in June that they weren’t permitted to play for $1.25 any more. When the players complained -- loudly -- and crafted petitions, Gillis and her team relented and allowed them to play for 25 cents.

There is actually a sign posted in the Scarborough Village room where they play ordering the seniors to only charge 25 cents.

That amount is permitted while Gillis and her team conduct a review of gambling in community centres -- one that is due to report by the end of the year.

Yes, folks, I can’t make this stuff up.

In fact, city spokesman Jaclyn Carlisle confirmed Thursday they are undertaking a review of entry fees in consultation with the city’s legal services and Ontario’s Alcohol and Gaming Commission -- to ensure allowable activities are “consistent with federal and provincial legislation.”

She said the review was initiated after the city received complaints regarding the “exchange of large sums.”

Questions regarding what constituted “large sums” and the number of complaints were not answered in time for my deadline.

Cronk, along with other players, showed me the pile of emails back and forth between himself and Gillis, Councillor Jennifer McKelvie’s and Mayor John Tory’s offices. Another player, Georgina Reid, who plays euchre during the respite hours she gets from caring for her husband with Alzheimer’s, has been corresponding as well with Councillor Paul Ainslie.

In a June 14 email to Cronk, Gillis contends that “collecting a fee with the expectation to win a pot of money is considered gambling” and that “gambling is a violation under the Criminal Code of Canada.”

On July 19, Gillis informs Cronk that until the investigation is done, they will continue with the “interim fees” (of 25 cents) to reduce “financial barriers for all participants.”

In a July 11 email, Monica Stefanick, constituency assistant to McKelvie, tells Bennett the city is conducting an “ongoing investigative review” to see how card games can be regulated.

For heaven’s sake.

One wonders how city officials can put this kind of nonsense in writing without being embarrassed.

Margarite Dietrich, 94, has been playing since 1993 after her husband passed away. The elegantly dressed woman said she started coming because she was “lonely” and needed the company -- and has subsequently made new friends.

She said there’s never been any question about the money until three months ago.

“I thought it was silly , they (city officials) said it was gambling , what do you mean gambling for $1.25?” she asked.

“They (city officials) have nothing else to do , they’re picking on seniors.”

Barbara Hibbs, 84, who helps organizes the euchre games at Scarborough Village every week, said through laughter that she and all of her fellow players must be “evil convicts.

“They might come and make us all lie on the floor with our arms up,” she said. “It’s just ridiculous , the city should mind its own business.”