Fairbank Memorial Park is a park located in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

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Description

The park's official address is 2213 Dufferin Street. It is bordered on the west by Dufferin Street, on the north by Keywest Avenue, and on the south by Gibson Street. It consists of 9.1 acres (36,826.4 m²) of ground, which contain the Fairbank Memorial Community Recreation Centre. It home to Fairbank Outdoor Pool, a swimming pool which is run by the City of Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation North District Aquatics Department. The facility consists of a baby pool, a large pool and an eating area. The pool fits a capacity of 270 patrons which including a maximum of 54 in the baby pool area. The park also has a playground, an open athletic field for sports like rugby

Rugby football

Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...

 or soccer, and athletic courts for baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

, basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

, and bocce

Bocce

Bocce is a ball sport belonging to the boules sport family, closely related to bowls and pétanque with a common ancestry from ancient games played in the Roman Empire...

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Development scandal

In the late 1980s, Fairbank Park became embroiled in a major political scandal. Several politicians, including City of York

York, Ontario

York is a dissolved municipality in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Geographically, it is located northwest of Old Toronto, southwest of North York and east of Etobicoke, where it is bounded by the Humber River. Formerly a separate city, it was one of six municipalities that amalgamated in 1998 to form...

 deputy mayor Tony Mandarano, became involved in a secret deal with land developer Lou Charles. Mandarano received more than $100,000 in bribes, and York Council member Jim Fera received $341,000; in exchange, they agreed to speak in favour of Charles's development plans during council meetings, the most prominent of which involved tearing down Fairbank Park and selling the land to Charles so that he could construct condominium

Condominium

A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...

s on the site. Councilwoman Frances Nunziata

Frances Nunziata

Frances Nunziata is a Toronto city councillor for Ward 11 York South-Weston . She is the sister of former Member of Parliament John Nunziata....

 was instrumental in exposing the scandal, which resulted in six of the eight council members losing their seats in the 1991 election

Toronto municipal election, 1991

The 1991 Toronto municipal election was held on November 12, 1991 to elect councillors in Metropolitan Toronto, Canada, and mayors, councillors and school trustees in Toronto, York, East York, North York, Scarborough and Etobicoke....

. Mandarano received a sentence of 15 months in prison in a plea bargain, while Fera accepted an 18-month sentence in a similar deal.

The decision to sell part of the park before redesignating the land for residential development was illegal, as it did not follow the City of York's Official Plan. In addition, the public input on the proposed project was limited and the public's support of the new condominiums was debatable.