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Jason Sills is living proof that a civilian can win at Toronto City Hall.

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Sills refers to himself as the spokesman for the activist movement that sunk the Toronto Humber Yacht Club. Sills and his allies wanted the boating club gone pronto and, boy, did they get their way.

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Councillor Amber Morley, who represents Sills’ ward, led an effort to overturn a committee decision that would’ve given the club a few months to straighten up and fly right. Now they’ve been ordered out by the end of April, a deadline so tight that the club’s members fear they might not even be able to sell the boats they store there.

“I don’t really care why the city is getting rid of the club. I don’t care what excuse they’re using,” Sills told the Toronto Sun.

Asked if that’s the way the City of Toronto should treat its constituents, Sills simply said: “Yeah.”

‘Aggressive, belligerent’

City hall struggled both at committee and city council to explain if it was booting the boat club because of environmental concerns, as bureaucrats first maintained, or violations of its lease, as Morley emphasized.

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Sills said there’s no reason to narrow it down. The club’s members don’t seem to care about the environment, the Humber River, the city’s authority, their Etobicoke community or anybody but themselves, he said.

Despite the “yacht club” moniker, vice-commodore Wilson DaSilva said the members tend to be more blue collar. Sills uses another term for the site: “Trailer park trash heap.

“They’re aggressive. They’re belligerent,” Sills said. He hates the landscaping and little gazebos they’ve installed along the banks of the Humber.

“They’re not these innocent victims that weren’t aware of what was going on,” he said.

It’s clear talking to Sills that he’s been one of the rare big winners at city hall and not just because he wrote last month that “We won!” on a page for his change.org petition.

In victory, some of his comments suggest influence or affiliation with the city government that he denies having. He said he had “offered them an olive branch” and suggested things might have turned out differently had the club agreed to “compromise” – which is odd, given that city hall’s initial position was that the boaters had to go because they’re leasing land on a flood plain.

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“I understand that now they’re saying, ‘Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, now we care,’ but they didn’t care in July last year, where I said, ‘Hey, remove the gazebos, put your original fencing back and replant the trees that you cut down and then you can show that you’re acting in good faith,” he said. “They said no.”

‘Those effing docks’

Sills said he knew the city was “never negotiating a new lease” with the club. Asked if he could explain how he knew that, he said, “I would prefer not.” He said he “clearly” has talked with Morley about the club, but denied any affiliation. (Morley’s office told the Toronto Sun it would not discuss “any resident interaction” for privacy reasons.)

While Sills said the yacht club’s poor relations with its neighbours date to shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic, his crusade began in 2024.

He said he’s an avid outdoorsman. He loves to hike, kayak and photograph wildlife in the wooded part of the Humber near the yacht club property.

First, Sills said he was frustrated to see the club add docks – which DaSilva said was allowed under the lease. “Had they only removed those effing docks in a timely manner, I probably would not be where I am today,” Sills said.

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Originally told to shape up or ship out

Then came an incident on Canada Day 2024 that displayed the sort of alleged belligerence that Sills repeatedly told the Sun it is too biased to report.

He said an obnoxious jet skier took a bend in the river much too fast and wound up soaking a family enjoying a holiday on the Humber in inflatable kayaks. The pair on the jet ski laughed it off, Sills said, and when they got off at the yacht club, the only thing anyone there did was hand them a beer.

“How do you do that?” he asked. “How do you ruin somebody’s Canada Day and think it’s funny?”

DaSilva said no complaint was filed and the yacht club had heard a different version of the events. Still, he can empathize: It looks like all of the club’s summer holidays are ruined now.

He said members had taken in good faith a committee ruling last month that would’ve given the boat club a few months to reach common ground with city hall. That was overturned at city council at the urging of Morley, a deputy mayor.

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‘We’re hard-working people’

DaSilva took issue with Sills’ “trailer park trash” remark, saying his members are “steel toe-wearing” types. While his members could jump ship to one of Toronto’s other clubs – the kind with more of a lawyer and accountant crowd – DaSilva said many can’t afford the five-figure admission fee, least of all on short notice.

“We’re hard-working people doing our best,” he said.

Still, he said, while city hall is set to “take possession” of club property, the municipality indicated Friday that rather than simply seizing the boats on May 1, they’ll try to be flexible.

The city didn’t confirm that, but did say the lease ends April 30.

“We recognize this is disappointing news and understand the impact it has on club members,” city hall told the Sun in a brief statement.

Sills said he’s “not sympathetic.” The members knew the club’s lease was on a month-to-month basis as of last July “and they chose not to do anything.

“I’ll tell you something that I’m not supposed to know,” Sills said, before alleging the yacht club took credit for work done for years by another boating group to pick up trash along the river. (DaSilva denied that.)

Sills said he’s made a point to post updates and information on his petition’s page to keep his activism transparent. In return, he said he has received threats, but the police won’t act.

So, no, he won’t cry for the capsized Toronto Humber Yacht Club. “It’s not like they didn’t spit in our face for four years,” he said.

jholmes@postmedia.com

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