Canadian garbage magnate Patrick Dovigi, whose Toronto house was targeted by a gunman this week, is denying that another executive with his company was also targeted the same night, saying: “this is not the Sopranos.”
The reported billionaire, who heads Canadian environmental services company, Green For Life Environmental Inc., said a newspaper report that identified the home of Ted Manziaris, a consultant with GFL, as being shot at in the wee hours of Monday morning was inaccurate.
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“It didn’t happen that night at Teddy’s house,” Dovigi said early Wednesday.
“It was nine days before.”
On Friday Sept. 20, someone threw rocks at the Manziaris home, Dovigi said.
“There wasn’t even a shooting at his house; they threw rocks through his window.”
The Toronto Police Service would not confirm Dovigi’s version of events.
“However, we can confirm that investigators believe that two firearm discharge incidents on September 29 and September 30 are connected and were targeted,” Stephanie Sayer, who speaks for the force, said in an email.
The first of those two shootings took place outside Dovigi’s home near the intersection of Mount Pleasant Road and St. Clair Avenue on Sunday at 11:52 p.m., where gunfire struck both his house and a vehicle.
The second shooting happened in the vicinity of Bayview Avenue and York Mills Road just before 1 a.m. Monday when gunfire struck the door of a house. Nobody was injured.
Dovigi has been clear that a gunman did fire multiple shots at his Rosedale home overnight Sunday. He wasn’t in the country at the time, and nobody was hit.
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On Monday, Dovigi said he did not think the armed intruder knew it was his home, and questioned whether the gunman was after two Range Rovers parked in his Toronto basement.
“This has been an ongoing topic in Toronto for awhile,” Dovigi said Monday.
“It’s pretty scary that it’s happening… We’re Canadian because it’s supposed to be safe. But, I don’t know, between all these carjackings and all these break-ins on our street, it’s pretty crazy.”
On Wednesday, Dovigi said he doesn’t believe reports of the shooting at his place will affect GFL’s share price, which hovered around $53 on the Toronto Stock Exchange Wednesday.
When asked if he thought one of his competitors was trying to scare him, Dovigi said: “I’ve been in business for twenty years. Who’s going to scare me? This is not the Sopranos.”
Dovigi founded his waste-management business in 2007, following a short-lived professional hockey career when he was drafted by the Edmonton Oilers in 1997.
GFL quickly grew after a series of acquisitions and in March 2020 it held its initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange, leaving it with a market value of $6.1 billion.
Canadian Business magazine has listed Dovigi’s net worth at $1.1 billion.
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‘Something has gone wrong in Toronto with all these carjackings and car thefts and break-ins,’ Patrick Dovigi said on Monday of the in possible robbery attempt
A gunman fired multiple shots at Canadian businessman Patrick Dovigi’s Toronto home early Monday morning in what the garbage magnate believes was a robbery gone wrong.
The reported billionaire, who now heads Canadian environmental services company, Green For Life Environmental Inc. (GFL), said Monday night that he was not the target of the shooting at his Rosedale home, and that he was not in the city when the shooting took place around 1 a.m.
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“We had a guy run up to the house trying to break in our house,” Dovigi said Monday night in a phone interview from New York City.
Dovigi’s security guard, who was walking around the house, yelled at the intruder.
“He said, ‘What are you doing?’ and the guy turned around and then fired a shot towards the security guard, and then fired four shots at the door as he was running away.”
The first shot appeared to be aimed toward the ground, Dovigi said.
“We have the video,” he said.
“As he was running away, the security guard was sort of running after him. He like turned back and shot four times at the front door.”
Dovigi questioned whether the intruder was just trying to scare off the security guard to make it to a getaway car. “There was a car on the street with another guy in it.”
We’re Canadian because it’s supposed to be safe. But, I don’t know
The security guard wasn’t hurt, Dovigi said. “He’s obviously a little bit rattled,” he said.
“Thankfully the guy was there. If they got in the house, who knows what they would have taken.”
The house has full-time security that work in shifts around the clock because of the recent volume of break-ins in the neighbourhood, he said.
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Dovigi said he doesn’t think the armed intruder knew it was his home.
Dovigi questioned Monday night whether the gunman was after two Range Rovers parked in his Toronto basement.
“This has been an ongoing topic in Toronto for a while,” he said.
“It’s pretty scary that it’s happening… We’re Canadian because it’s supposed to be safe. But, I don’t know, between all these carjackings and all these break-ins on our street, it’s pretty crazy.”
Dovigi emailed his neighbours about the shooting, looking for images of the crime-in-progress from their surveillance cameras.
“I told them exactly what happened, and I said if you guys can cooperate with the police to get the photos, that would be very helpful,” he said.
“They have not made any arrests, but they’re compiling the footage from the street.”
Former hockey star Eric Lindros lives at the end of the same street, Dovigi said, noting the getaway car might have been parked beside the Lindros home.
“So maybe we have something from before he came on the street,” he said. “They have videos of what looks like the same car. But the police said the problem with these guys is they probably stole the car to come, or they’re using a car with stolen plates.”
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People in the neighbourhood are trying to be vigilant, Dovigi said.
“In the last two months there has been three or four break-ins,” he said.
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Geoff Beattie, the former head of private holding company Woodbridge Co. Ltd., the holding company for the powerful Thomson family, lives on the same street at Dovigi.
“He was broken into just down the street,” Dovigi said. “Something has gone wrong in Toronto with all these carjackings and car thefts and break-ins. It’s been widely publicized, but clearly something needs to be done.”
Dovigi founded his waste-management business in 2007, following a short-lived professional hockey career when he was drafted by the Edmonton Oilers in 1997.
GFL quickly grew after a series of acquisitions and in March 2020, it held its initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange, leaving it with a market value of $6.1 billion.
Canadian Business magazine has listed Dovigi’s net worth at $1.1 billion.
Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.
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