Dr. Jimmy & Mr. Bytyqi

[Davey Boy 2.0]

An Ottawa man accused of impersonating a licensed dentist in Toronto, Ottawa and Gatineau turned himself in to Toronto police yesterday.

Gzim Bytyqi, 50, is facing six charges, including fraud under $5,000, false representation, and criminal negligence causing bodily harm.

Police say he had been offering low-cost dental work, such as pulling teeth and making bridges and dentures, under the name Dr. Jimmy Connolly.

On Thursday, Toronto police executed a search warrant of a house near Jane Street and Lawrence Avenue West, following a complaint from a New York state resident.

"The treatment he received wasn't what he should have received," said Det. Darren Sisk. "When he went back home, he had a bunch of infections that had to be treated."

Police seized equipment and the dental chair from Mr. Bytyqi's "office" on Thursday.

"It wasn't your typical dental office," said Det. Sisk, adding that he was surprised Mr. Bytyqi performed dental procedures in a carpeted room.

"It was in the basement of a home and it wasn't what you would expect as far as sanitation goes," he said. "I wouldn't expect any of that in my dental office."

According to police, Mr. Bytyqi claimed to have worked as a dentist in Kosovo, and advertised his services in Ontario and Quebec by "word-of-mouth."

Police are asking anyone who has been treated by the suspect to call 416-808-1204.

[Davey Boy 2.0]

These are from the Citizen, this one's even better (be forewarned Booche):

Leonard Poole admits he wasn't looking like a page out of a fashion magazine when he went into a downtown grocery store to buy something for supper about three weeks ago.

But the 56-year-old Ottawa man is adamant that store security should not have kicked him out, apparently based on his Grateful Dead-like appearance, without allowing him to speak to the store manager.

Now Mr. Poole may finally get want he wants -- a written apology from the corporation that owns Loeb Rideau Street Market.

"We apologized to him before, but now it seems like he wants it in writing," said parent company Métro's spokeswoman, Marie-Claude Bacon. "We will get back to Mr. Poole, but we would like to settle this between us and him in a private manner."

Asked directly if that meant Mr. Poole will get a written apology, she said: "We don't wish to comment publicly on that. We'll try to settle it in a private way."

But Mr. Poole says he was humiliated publicly, not privately, shortly after he went into the grocery store about 5 p.m. on Dec. 31. He had just returned from Toronto by bus.

Mr. Poole, a candidate for the Green party in Ottawa-Vanier in the last provincial election, has a full greying beard and ties his long hair in a ponytail. He was wearing a tuque, jacket and jeans and had a backpack on when he began pushing a grocery cart around the store. He said his beard had not been trimmed in a couple of weeks.

"I can assure you that I had not been drinking, nor did I emit offensive body odour," Mr. Poole wrote in a Jan. 2 letter to the company.

His letter states that he picked up several packages of meat and poultry, took a closer look at each item, and then put each back, never putting any of them in his cart, in which he had placed a piece of his luggage.

Then store security got involved. "Excuse me, sir, I am going to have to ask you to leave the store," Mr. Poole quotes the security guard as saying.

"You have been acting suspiciously and I must ask you to leave."

Mr. Poole then said he was "just trying to find some meat" and asked if there was a problem.

He asked to see the manager, but was refused.

He tried to explain that he was checking the "best before" dates on the meat packages, but was having difficulty because he did not have his reading glasses.

"It is my opinion that your security guard judged me to be a homeless or otherwise indigent person looking for food to steal."

In the letter, Mr Poole said he learned "a powerful lesson."

"For the first time in my life, from personal experience, I know what it is like to be profiled and pre-judged. I have been touched in the depth of my soul with how it feels to be tossed aside as someone unworthy of dignity and respect."

Mr. Poole said the security guard was actually seeing "a confused, tired, hirsute traveller in need of some customer service" -- not a would-be shoplifter.

The store has understandable security concerns, "because it is in the heart of an area that deals with homelessness," he said in the letter.

In an interview, Mr. Poole said store employees "could have solved this from the get-go with, 'May I help you?' And I'm still waiting."

The "overriding issue" is important he said.

"How many folks go into that store and get unceremoniously booted out and get insulted and demeaned? I've never been humiliated like that in public."

Mr. Poole said he received a brief telephone call in mid-January from a Loeb vice-president.

"I want more than just a quick two-minute phone call from a guy on a cellphone. I want a written apology ... and I want it clear that I am, in fact, welcome to shop in their stores and I want an explanation as to what happened. I want to meet with the store manager."