The Ben Mulroney Show - The light and dark sides of crime

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

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Tools that make it possible to go from tax question to client comms in minutes. Get better answers to tough questions. BlueJ. AI for tax experts. Welcome to the Ben Moor Rooney Show. Thank you so much for joining us on this day. What is the day today? We are the 13th, Thursday the 13th.

I'm a little bit behind the 8 ball right now, and I was just sharing with Greg Brady prior to me taking this seat. I, every now and then, the gods kind of nudge you in one direction or another. And this morning, I felt a number of nudges suggesting I stay in bed. And I didn't listen. and when I got to the office, it's as if my entire work profile did not exist. Like it doesn't exist.

My past didn't work. I don't exist in the system. And so what you're just witnessing right now is me trying to catch up to what would normally be a very short switchover from Greg into Ben took a lot longer. So you'll bear with me for just a moment.

But here we are. Here we are. Very good. Do you think it's one of those? moments where you have those Do I really exist in the universe? No, no. Maybe you should be sitting in the forest.

Oh, I know I exist. I just don't exist for chorus today. Hey, before we start with anything, I wanted to really share something that happened yesterday that was wonderful. You know, we've had a little pet project on this show, trying to get people

to just get the national anthem right in moments that were important to all of us. And it really seemed to be happening a lot during the World Series where our singers just couldn't get with the program that it's not their song to change. And the meaning of the song is the meaning of the song. And you can put a motion into it and you can make the song your own by singing it in your own style. But you don't get to change the lyrics because you want to make a point. You're not better than the anthem. And last night, I was at an event where I heard one of the,

greatest renditions of O Canada I have ever heard. It was a group called the Soul Power Choir, S-O-L-E, Soul Power Choir. And it must have been 30 people who just looked like Canada. So just imagine that. Singing, you could hear the love that they had for this country in their voice. And even if they didn't, they faked it enough to make me feel my love for this country. and it brought me to freaking tears. It brought me to tears. And one of the lead singers of the choir was actually someone I had known in my previous life named Kibway Thomas. And I think he's the artistic director for that group.

And I gave him a hug afterwards. It meant so much to me to feel that when hearing that anthem. And so, listen, if you have an event and you want to bring down the house, look up Soulpower Choir, I'm telling you, what they did was just, it was just, it was beautiful. And I want to thank them because you don't get to feel that often. And you certainly don't, I mean, for somebody to have that power over you in that moment, it was, it was beautiful. So anyway, thank you to the Soul Power Choir.

It was really special. And thank you, Kidway. Great to see you. Most of the time when we talk crime on this show, we talk crime with anger in our voices, frustration at the system that allows it to happen and continue to happen. But every now and then, there's just a fun crime story. Now, this story could have gone in a way that led to tragedy. But the reason we're saying it with a smile on our face today, our face, our faces, as I don't speak in the third person, is because it didn't end in tragedy.

It just kind of ended. So around 9 p.m. on Tuesday night, a Hamilton bus driver stepped off to use the bathroom. He just, and he left the, he left the keys and he left the bus running. Look, what are the chances, what are the chances of you doing something like that? And at that very moment, just as you slip into the coffee shop to, you know, to answer the call of nature, somebody walks by and thinks, you know what a good idea would be for me to steal this bus? And that's what happened. It's, uh, it is a crazy, crazy story.

We heard that yesterday and we're like, oh, I immediately thought, is this guy on a rampage driving through Hamilton? Yeah. So this 36-year-old man who was already on a prohibited license, which is, I mean, okay. Come on. That's not going to stop you. That's not going to stop you. He got behind the wheel of the bus. There were 10 passengers on board.

He drove away essentially for a joy ride. Now, the Hamilton police officer, Trevor McKenna, was on with Alex Pearson yesterday. And let's listen, let's listen to his assessment of what happened. Well, roughly 10. And during his venture, he was making stops, allowing people to exit and exit, enter the bus. Yeah, so give or take 10 at any given time. So a guy who's not a bus driver is driving the bus and he's making all the stops. Is anybody else reminded of this?

Yeah, then everybody is screaming because the driver, he's passed out because of all the commotion. The bus is out of control. So I grab him by the collar. I take him out of the seat. I get behind the wheel. Now I'm driving the bus. You're Batman. Yeah, yeah, I am Batman.

Then the mugger, he comes to and he starts choking me. So I'm fighting him off with one hand, and I kept driving the bus with the other, you know. Then I managed to open up the door, and I kicked him out the door, you know, with my foot, you know, at the next stop. You kept making all the stops? Well, people kept ringing the bell. But it's the visuals as well.

Oh, yeah. With Kramer. If you are of a certain generation, mine, a little bit younger, older, like Mike Drolet there, then you're imagining it when you're hearing it. Kramer was, Michael Richards, was such a great physical comic. Like a fit, that character doesn't work with. without the physicality of Michael Richards. It's one of those characters you can't imagine anybody else doing.

Yeah. So, okay, so back to the here and now and back to the Hamilton version of Kramer. How did this play out? And the police followed at a distance. No lights so as not to spook him. They knew that they had something, I think, pretty unique on their hands. And they're like, let's just slow play this. And but also, he didn't know the route, right?

So he was picking people up, and I guess he had a pretty good scheme going on. He was asking people to pay for the ride with cash. Someone came on with an expired pass, I guess their version of a presto card, and he wouldn't allow him on. Well, at least he was following the rules. Yeah. No way. No free rides here.

Yeah, but it continued because I think there was starting to be buy-in by people on the bus who would notice like, okay, the guy is not wearing his. uniform. He's not the bus driver we remember. They started to figure it out. And he doesn't really know where he's going. And so they started helping him. They started guiding him. I think early on into the trip, nobody really knew what was happening.

It was just a business as usual. But then when he started going on side streets and not on the scheduled planned route, that's when people started noticing and speaking to the driver like, hey, you need to go this way or, you know, and guiding him, per se. Yeah, they were helping him out. I'm aiding and abetting.

aiding and abetting But look Have you ever Like gotten behind the wheel of a car That's not yours And it might be a little bigger Or a little smaller than you're used to And you're not used to the

You don't have the spatial awareness That you do once you get comfortable with the car Like I know my car so well I know if I'm going to As I'm trying to pull out of a parking spot I know how much distance I have Even I can't see it I know I'm not going to hit the car in front of me

And I know as I'm trying to As you know With the cars parked And people double parking I know if I can get through a tight spot. Because I know my car. Have you ever driven a U-Haul or something like that?

Yeah, but then imagine then getting behind for the first time a U-Haul, or in this case, a city bus. There's a reason a lot of the U-Hauls you see have their bumpers really jammed in and they've got damage? Yeah. There's a reason. There's a reason. When you're not used to driving something that big, damage will is common and expected.

So ask yourself, if you were to be able to drive a bus, and you'd never driven a bus before, what sort of damage would that bus get while you're driving the bus? Well, let's listen to see how this man fared. I can tell you that this person assumed the role and miraculously was able to drive the bus up the mountain and there's not even a dent on it. Not even a dent on it.

There's literally this is the happiest crime ending story ever. People got to where they needed to go. People got to where they needed to go. no one was hurt, bus wasn't damaged I honestly I wish every crime story that we talked about was like this sadly that's not the case

and we'll be diving into those a little bit later but a little bit of a smile to start your day here on the Ben Mulroney show A criminal smile A criminal smile All right after the break yeah we're going to be talking about

the flip side the bad side of crime so don't go anywhere this is the Ben Mulroney show Let's face it, finding your next favorite podcast can be tough, but that's about to change. Curious Cast Discovery is the destination for award-winning podcasts from true crime and history, like crime beat. Documentaries like Stop, Rewind, The Lost Boy, music with Uncharted, and even the paranormal, like Dead Man's Curse. All 100% ad-free for less than the price of a coffee. Curious cast discovery.

Available now on Apple Podcasts for just $4 a month. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. If you've heard me say it once, I've said it a thousand times. I take the world as it is, not as I want it to be. I want the world to be a place where we can laugh at stories like the joyriding bus dude in Hamilton all the time. But the world as it is is one in which people are fearful in their own homes because home invasion seems to be a boom. business for certain types of criminal enterprises. And we report on on these sorts of crimes

much more often than I would want, but we have to keep our eye on the prize because the goal is to draw enough attention to it that there's enough pressure on the powers that be to perhaps make some changes to the laws that would make these things less attractive to the criminal element. And five arrests were made in the Vaughn Home Invasion that we talked about, I believe, in August that left a father of four dead. And police are still searching for one youth. I believe he's 16 years old. And the message that the cops have for this youth are, we will find you. Now, a point I want to make, because we're going to be letting you know who all these people are. But a point.

that I want to make is the cops received a dispensation from the law that says that if you're below a certain age there's a publication ban on your name because they really want to find this guy so they've got an exception

the judge granted an exception in this case and his name has been released it's out there for you to find along with the picture but what happens is once the guy is arrested because he is a youth The Youth Criminal Justice Act applies, and any reference to that person's name has to be excised, cut out of our coverage. So if we say his name now, and then they arrest him, we then have to go back into our podcasts and anything that we put on social media and cut out his name.

So if that makes sense to you, you're far smarter than I, but I think it's highlights sort of how the law is just not working. the way it's supposed to, because that's nonsense. It's really, it's busy work that doesn't help anybody. So rather than put ourselves through all that, we're just going to tell you, if you want to get this guy's name, it's out there for you to consume. We're not going to say it because we don't want to make extra work for ourselves a little bit later. But just to remind you of that home invasion case,

once I give you some of these facts, you will be transported right back to the end of August. On August 31st, at around 1 a.m. in Vaughn, three suspects broke into the home of a 46-year-old. His name was Abdul Alim Faruqi. And he was a businessman, community leader, well, like, by all accounts, a great neighbor. And they held one of his daughters at gunpoint. And while he was protecting his family, Faruqi was fatally shot. So search warrants were executed at three residences in Toronto and Mississauga on Monday.

Five people arrested. three adults, two youths. Multiple suspects remain outstanding, specifically this 16-year-old. So here are the charges and who was charged. Amir William Muhammad, Abdu Meade, 26 of Mississippi. He was the one charged with first-degree murder and four other offenses.

And he was already facing other charges at the time of arrest. No surprise. That is pretty much par for the course almost every time we tell you a story like this. There was a 16-year-old whose name has been released. Like I said, check your Twitter.

He's wanted for first-degree murder and three additional charges. He's believed to be in the GTA. Police are urging him to turn himself in. And I was listening to Greg Brady's show earlier where they were saying this kid, he's 16. He doesn't have, you know, he's a child. Like, he's a child. So it's not like he's got the means or the network to hide himself for very long. They really do believe they're going to find this kid.

And when they do, I hope that whatever the full force of the justice system, whatever that means, these days is brought down on him. There's a 34-year-old man in Toronto charged with accessory after the fact. So a 26-year-old man and two 16-year-olds. These guys were charged in connection with operating a stolen Honda CRV. And that vehicle was stolen from Toronto days before. Let's listen to the- Also, of course, the 25-year-old was already out. Already out release on bailout.

It's rinse and repeat, guys. Every time we tell you one, these stories, you know that almost inevitably we are going to tag this information with and that suspect was out on bail at the time. As was, I mean, the first guy, Amir Habuk Mai made, he's facing other charges at the time of the arrest. So here's York Regional Police Chief Jim McSween talking about the needs for bail reform and reform for the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Those we've arrested in this case were out on a release. order or probation, which once again highlights why police chiefs across the country, myself included, remain adamant that changes need to be made to the system. I'm incredibly disappointed that dangerous criminals are continuously released back into the community, only to re-offend and re-victimize the public. What's also extremely concerning is that a 16-year-old youth is wanted in connection with this incident. We're seeing the perpetrators become increasingly younger, while the severity of these crimes continue to escalate.

We need changes that prevent violent offenders from returning to the streets only to re-offend again, and harsher penalties to deter criminals from committing these atrocious acts in the first place. I don't know a single person who would disagree with any of that, but does that sound familiar to you? Does that ring a bell? Are you having deja vu when you hear that? Let's go back to the days after this terrible home invasion and murder. Here are the voices of the mayor of Vaughan, I guess it was the conservative leadership candidate at the time,

Pierre Polly, you have the leader of the conservatives, and the premier Doug Ford. Here's what they said back then. This has to stop. Those criminals who choose to have no regard for human life or for property that people work hard to own will be behind bars, not out on the streets, It's not out on bail, not the revolving door that we've seen for far too long.

Of Alim Faruqi, the courageous father who rose in the middle of the night to defend his kids and lost his life in front of those children, the three cowardly scumbags who carried out that attack, I bet you anything, they have already been arrested in the past. You know something I have a saying for the folks that are defending their homes, I'd rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6. And unfortunately, my friend Aleem is going to be carried by 6 because he's trying to defend his family. It's a disaster right now in the justice system. And I'm going to be all over the federal government, just all over them. Yeah, so that was at the end of August or the beginning of September.

And now we're midway through November. And those are strong words. There's a motion behind them. You can hear it in the voices of those men. But do those words mean anything? Have they amounted to anything three months later? Or is it just political theater? Are we just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic?

You'll remember that the federal liberals have indeed passed some changes to the criminal code announcing sweeping justice reforms in October. Well, some say sweeping. Others say half measures. Strictor bail rules, harsher penalties for repeat and violent offenders, including minors. No changes specifically to the Youth Criminal Justice Act. So will it make a difference? The law hasn't passed yet, right? We're still operating under the rules that everybody agrees are not doing the job.

And I have to say, I think we're living in a world where because things were so bad for so long, any improvement we are going to take as a win. But the Tories proposed their own changes that were voted down. That was far, they were far more aggressive in the changes that they were proposing than what the liberals have offered up here. And I just, I think we're past the point of incremental change. I think I would have preferred the adoption of the conservative motion, a jail not bail act. But again, compromise, conciliation. we get together.

I'd rather some change than no change, but I kind of saw what change was possible, and we're not getting that. I don't want to be telling these stories anymore, so that's where I'm coming from. And it's a fair thing. Consider how many people associated with the police, various associations.

London's police chief, Ty Trong, was on a few months ago saying all of these things. Yeah. And they're beating us over the head saying, we need change. And here's the thing. All of them agree. Yeah, all of them agree.

All of them. And I would, listen, if something's going to happen where somebody else's, these new changes are going to come in, and then somebody's going to find a way to work around those changes. And we're going to be right back here again. But look, hopefully those changes take effect soon. Up next, let's talk leaves. Do you rake them? Do you leave them?

We all have that neighbor, don't we? Mike Drillet. Don't go anywhere. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. If you're lucky, if you're lucky, you like your neighbors. If there's some, you can't pick your neighbors. But if you're lucky, the people who live next to you on either side behind you, if you have a shared fence, that you get along with them.

And you see eye to eye and you're considerate with each other and you look out for each other. And I have that. I'm really, really lucky. I have that. I have it also because I had problems with the neighbors. that I lived next to in my previous house. The point that I, a bad interaction with one of my neighbors was what led me to say, we got to get out of here and move.

And we moved and now we've got really great neighbors. But that's not the case for everyone. And we're sort of living in a time right now where with the snow that we had that's mixing with the leaves that were still on the ground. Leaves are becoming an issue. Leaves are becoming an issue. And I'll give you an example. We found this guy on social media.

Here's an example of a guy you don't want to live next to it, I don't think. I know you're at work right now, but I know you're going to see this. So we have a problem, neighbor. You see your tree here has spread its leaves all over my yard. Now, this is a problem because, you know, this is my yard, and I don't have any trees. I cut down my trees years ago to avoid exactly this scenario. Now, Stuart, I brought some of the leaves to the Calloway's

nursery to have them tested to make sure and they came back positive they are from your tree so you know stew i don't know what we're going to do about this uh i don't even have a rake nor should i have to get a rake because i don't have trees in my yard okay i think you should be more concerned with the dexter like kill room he likely has in okay so here's what my intrepid producer mike drollay learned about the city of toronto there are no bylaws requiring homeowners to rake leaves on private lawns. I did not know that. The city doesn't mandate yard maintenance to that level

as long as your property isn't creating a nuisance or a safety issue. Now, there are rules around snow removal, right? You have to clear whatever you're responsible for, your driveway, the steps leading up to your house, the sidewalk in front of your house. You have an obligation to do that within 12 hours of any snow dump in significant snow dump in the city because that presents an immediate hazard.

But leaves are just leaves. You don't have to do anything with them if you don't want to. You can't rake or blow leaves onto the street, onto the sidewalk, or your neighbor's property. That's prohibited under the City of Toronto's streets and sidewalks bylaw. However, if your leaves blow onto a neighbor's property and create a nuisance, a property standards or nuisance bylaw could apply. Does that, okay.

So you don't have to rake your leave. but if enough flow over you could possibly get a bylaw officer and they got so much work the chances of them and how do you prove where the leaves came? Well, you take them to the nursery like psycho neighbor dude did

now Stuart I don't know what we're going to do about this I got to wonder though so his leaves just fell on off of his tree onto the other guy's property I'm pretty sure that's that guy's problem it's whoever the leaves that fell on his wherever they fall like that's that guy's problem yeah it's not it's not your it's not the

because you don't know the tree you don't have the right to then go onto his property and rake those leaves unless you get permission right yeah uh and you have to want to do that but it's i don't it's like i feel bad for the kill room guy but it's uh well look i have a giant tree in front of my house yeah giant tree and uh obviously a lot of leaves uh i have his neighbor who hates the tree so much because of all the stuff that comes off of it. It's a maple tree, so it's got those little the keys and all that stuff. It makes a mess. Yeah. And

this woman has tried to get this tree cut down so many different times. The previous owners told me she tried to do it as well. And going through like pretending to say, oh yeah, both homeowners agreed to do it and trying to get the bylaw officers to do it. Of course, they're not going to do it. Yeah. But

she wants to cut down the tree because of the leaves. Because they refused to rake. Well, say in my old house, right, um, one of the first things that happened when we moved in is there was a tree on my neighbor's property. Now, there's not, there's not a story about a bad neighbor. It's a story about bad luck.

And the tree, the tree's root system. So I guess there was a pipe from my house into the main, whatever, the main pipes of the city to take, you know, water and toilet stuff into, to where it needs to go. And the root system at one point grew so much that it punched through that pipe. backing everything into my house. And that was one of the first things I had to deal with. And it was my responsibility because I guess there had been a bylaw on the books that said that if something like that happens with a tree that's not yours, you're not responsible for it.

The city's going to take care of it. That was, I think, one of the first things that Rob Ford changed when he became mayor, which was just a few weeks before I took possession of my house. Had I bought the house like six months earlier, I wouldn't have had that problem that I would have to pay for. But all that to say, there are plenty of things. When you own a house, there are plenty of scenarios that you are responsible for even though it's occurring off of your property.

If you have, but I mean, if you have a tree in your backyard and it's, say, up near the fence and the branches go over the fence and cover, say, that neighbor actually has a right to cut those branches. I'm sure. Because it's, no, because the property rights go up and through the air. you have the air rights as well. So you can't have these branches going into their home or anything.

They can cut that stuff. Well, what I love about my backyard and this again, someone I'm very lucky with is there are plenty of old growth trees in our neighborhood, but none of them are on my property and none of them are anywhere close to my property.

So when I'm in my backyard, I can see and enjoy those trees and I know that those root systems are nowhere near my house. And that's a big deal given that pipe problem I had. but I didn't know this about the fact that you can't I'm actually going to go home today I'm going to buy a rake I've never bought a rate because we've had a group of

we always have a lovely gardener that comes and does it but because it's so gross and wet and everything I kind of want to get rid of it myself so I'm thinking of doing that unless you want to lend me your rake because I don't even own a rake nor should I because I don't have any trees you don't have any trees if you don't have any trees then yeah it's your neighbor's problem right Yeah, but, you know, we've been having big conversations about nimbism and people like yesterday we were talking about Badi Ali's pizza, pizzeria and how a lot of people in the neighborhood don't like it because there's so many people who flock to that place and it causes, I don't congest, I don't know what it's, well, I don't know what the problem is. If you're a neighboring homeowner, of course you're going to be annoyed with people standing in front of your house all the time.

Yeah, you know, but I mean, it's, it's, no, yeah. Are you, but they are on a sidewalk. They're on a sidewalk, exactly. And it's, again, like, But my point is like, generally speaking, when you live in a city, a bustling city, a dynamic city, the word dynamism is important. It references like, I don't know, kinetic energy, things bouncing off of each other. That's sort of the glory of being in a city. And if you don't want those things, then maybe city life isn't for you. And if you're going to get annoyed anytime something happens in close proximity to your property, But that's sort of living. That's what happens when you live shoulder to shoulder with somebody else.

Like that's life in a city, even in a residential area. It happens. If you're so annoyed by it, go live out in the country or go or live somewhere else. I mean, you might not have a choice. Well, I can't live anywhere else. Well, then you got to suck it up. Then you have to suck it up. You got to suck it up.

Because there's a lot of things that you do, I'm sure, that annoy other people. Oh, yeah. It's like the people live on the island who think that they're living in the country. They get annoyed with the planes and things. Well, consider yourself lucky that you get to live the country lifestyle, a stone's throw from one of the most exciting downtown cores in North America. Like, that's the gift. And the trade-off for that is, yeah, every now and then a plane goes overhead.

Deal with it. Sorry, not sorry. You're not, you can, the fiction that you live in the country only takes you so far. And then the reality of life is to have where you actually live, which is incredible, hits you in the face that, yeah, you live next to an airport. And you should appreciate that. But one day, one day that battle for the airport is going to, at some point the technology is going to get to the point

where the jets on the island are going to become a thing again. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know if the residents of the island are going to win next time. You'd be surprised. I like to think that common sense would prevail. Yeah. But it just never does.

Yeah. Thank you.