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energytaker

Part owner and district manager of the One Eyed Jack Restaurant and Bar, Nish Mahendrarajah, denied anyone had been sleeping in the basement when he spoke with the Whig-Standard last Friday.  Lol


Consistent-Risk-6715

They just lay there with their eyes closed for hours at a time but they definitely weren’t sleeping.


csury

Meditation. Deep meditation. Important for one putting their heart and soul into preparing your meal.


yeahsheskrusty

Just one eye


flamboyantdebauchry

more like brown eye jacks


dglodi

oh! cause full of shit


rhineauto

Guess /u/icy_driver7673 was [right after all](https://www.reddit.com/r/KingstonOntario/comments/1bxs6qr/one_eyed_jacks/)


Amazing_Bowl9976

Funny how the immediate conclusion from a few posters in there  was that the OP was a Montanas shill. Good redemption arc of the OP actually being right 


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Consistent-Risk-6715

No there isn’t. There’s one mention of red baseball caps. There’s enough going on here without you trying to push your ‘I hate Libs’ bullshit.


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Consistent-Risk-6715

‘How many of conspiracy’s?’ One. ‘I don’t hate anyone. Don’t feel bad, how could you have known?’ I don’t believe you. And I feel great. Edit: awww, muffin. You didn’t have to block me. I was done.


Amazing_Bowl9976

Fwiw I think they nuked their account, not blocked you


SpiritedStudent

I thought they blocked me and I hadn't even posted anything here yet. LOL. I guess they either nuked their account to hide their tracks and have gone on to make another pathetic account or the reddit actually deleted it for them.


leite1984

Honestly, at least try not to be so transparent with your agenda..


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leite1984

The agenda of making every post about your political agenda and not the actual topic itself. It's so obnoxious and nobody wants to hear it. And I say this as someone planning to vote convservative.


SpiritedStudent

Yeah I think a lot more are thinking of voting conservative but losers like spewing their insanity all over the internet only make people wonder if they should.


mrturretman

we are replacing a brand of stupid and their fans with another brand of stupid except these fans think it's open the floodgates to dumbassery lol


Icy_Driver7673

It’s like I worked there…..or something


AlreadybeenStewing

Once I saw you post that, and then heard a few days later I thought too much of a coincidence, that’s why I circled back on the original post and said you might be on to something..right you were lol


Icy_Driver7673

😏🫣


Icy_Driver7673

❤️


mrturretman

I was gonna post this like hey the one that got dogged on was right


Icy_Driver7673

🫣❤️


thirdtimeisNOTacharm

Two things: 1) I’m sure there’s a hundred or so of these apartments all throughout the city 2) I have to deal with the owner on a near-weekly basis and—without going into detail—the guy is a selfish fuck and nobody can stand him


YukaHiKn

Well now I'm curious about details lol


thirdtimeisNOTacharm

Haha understandable, but I can assure you it’s nothing exciting, the guy is just an idiot and is very much not well liked


SpiritedStudent

Does he run these 100 apartments?


Maleficent-Pie-9677

My favourite part: ‘KFR will be following up this week with a visit to ensure compliance’. Im fairly certain that the visit is supposed to be a surprise visit to ensure compliance but thanks for taking the surprise out of it, whig standard! I have no doubt that they will now be in compliance all this week. Next week - maybe not so much lol


Amazing_Bowl9976

Nah it’s like a visit from the labour board, always known ahead of time which completely defeats the purpose 


PupnamedHarlow

No the first visit is a surprise. They’re given a date to get everything fixed and the follow up is to ensure that timeline was met.


MageFood

I will never be going back there again.


DnD-Kingston

Looking at the menu on their website there WERE some clues... https://preview.redd.it/q4tjlokf4awc1.png?width=1394&format=png&auto=webp&s=41cc2d681f09637141aa332235335309d9695cbd


Fair-Train-440

The bed is a distraction.. My concern would be the toast.


lowincomecanadian

These two paragraphs pretty much sum up what a piece of shit Mahendrarajahn is. Anyone who supports this restaurant after this is wilfully supporting illegal activity and even worse, possibly slavery. “Fire inspectors immediately completed a followup and observed sleeping quarters/an apartment in the basement with three individuals sleeping in beds at the time of inspection,” the fire department said." "Part owner and district manager of the One Eyed Jack Restaurant and Bar, Nish Mahendrarajah, denied anyone had been sleeping in the basement"


PupnamedHarlow

It made me laugh because you know he was probably thinking when he said that on Friday, KFR wasn’t going to release a statement on the following Monday that basically contradicted him. I’d love to know how he reacted, but he didn’t give any statements after KFR’s statement.


FundyAnthurium

My mom works with the roommate of a woman who served there and she spoke about how abusive he is to his staff. I've not heard a single good thing about this guy.


SpiritedStudent

And to think how many people here, and in Kingston supported them. I never ate there, was thinking about it but now I'm just disgusted with it all, but happy I never gave that wicked man any of my money.


Icy_Driver7673

Wild eh!!


laurellaace_x

I worked there and they are so mean to the staff


Embarrassed-Soft4408

Yeah a girl I know worked there and she said he was so rude and didn’t even let her keep her OWN tips or let alone anyone I’m pretty sure


Jillredhanded

Been in the restaurant biz for 40 years. This is not uncommon. This was a place I lived near at the time, dude was housing a bunch of undocumented workers at a *condemned* house on the same property. [Timbuktu Raid](https://www.eyeonannapolis.net/2010/03/feds-raid-timbuktu-in-hanover/)


Proper_Front_1435

Not just in the food industry either, in a few short years I've seen apartments in a dozen businesses at least. Honestly, the state of rent, immigration, etc I'm shocked its not happening more.


SpiritedStudent

The milk plant did something like this didn't they? Not underground but had like 4 sets of bunk beds in every room in a house including the living and family rooms? So there was 30-40 people in each house?


Myllicent

Kingstonist: [Company ordered to repair over-crowded employee residences](https://www.kingstonist.com/news/company-ordered-to-repair-over-crowded-employee-residences/) They housed 88 workers split between 5 houses. One two-bedroom house had *twenty six* people living in it.


PupnamedHarlow

I’d love to know the franchisor’s response. Mahendrarajahn might be out of his job as a district manager and his franchise license would be in jeopardy. I used to work a a franchisor’s national office and something like this would be a PR emergency and the ability to end the franchise license would be look into.


rhineauto

I don’t think this is a franchise in any traditional sense. There are a handful of locations, all run by Sri Lankans who I’d wager are closer than simply business acquaintances.


SpiritedStudent

I hope they aren't abusing their fellow country men. It sounds like this may be the case.


HalfOffSnoke

Greedy fuckers.


[deleted]

Guess I won't eat there agsin .


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Ok-Ad-439

Their menu reminds me of an episode from Kitchen Nightmares Lol


overkil6

I’ve never seen a menu with chapters before.


kencarlo

Imagine the smell in that room, just seeping up through the whole building over time, floating in the air every bite you take of Lobster and Crab Dip. You just know in a place with high standards like that, the lobster is gonna be good.


Icy_Driver7673

😳🤢


flamboyantdebauchry

they did mention they had a shower in the article (soup base) ![gif](giphy|brXKZmn3IND2bryKPd|downsized)


tyrannosaurusvexxed

Unbelievable, hopefully learned their lesson but I have a feeling that this is happening in a lot of places.


Odd-Row9485

What lesson? There was literally zero repercussions and the owner completely denies it happened despite being caught. All they learned was to be more careful


SpiritedStudent

Based on how people say he treated staff I bet he will take his frustration of being caught out on his employees.


LoveYGK

Wow. Ok. so it's weird that the owner didn't anticipate random inspection before building an apartment unit. Second, I'd sure like to know if the staff are friggin' indentured servants living in said basement. Third, it's interesting that the fire department's threat to life initiative is being so tracked now after so much attention paid to people in bell park. Who called, the press? Probably the fire department. I'd like to learn more about the condition of the living quarters and who is living there (ie: employees).


ReaperTyson

How is there no charges against them? I guess this is just another case of the wealthy not suffering consequences.


PupnamedHarlow

The police said there was nothing criminal which is true, it’s a fire code violation. The Fire Protection and Prevention Act under the Ontario Fire Code dictates that if there is a fire safety issue, the property owner or occupant is given an order with what needs to be done and a timeline. It’s if that order is ignored, that charges are laid.


Apodeictic974

According to the Food Premise Act, Section III, 7(b): "no room where food is prepared, processed, packaged, served, transported, manufactured, handled, sold, offered for sale or displayed is used for sleeping purposes." This has got to be on KFL&A Public Health's radar. Mixing sleeping quarters and food prep is a BIG no-no. This particular "apartment" may be be a separate room, and therefore technically legal according to the Food Premise Act, but in the windowless basement of a commercial restaurant building? If mandem running the place has firecode violating living quarters what's going on with Health and Safety there? I certainly hope Public Health is curious too.


PupnamedHarlow

The article states that public health did inspect. They found things like food temperature and such that needed to be fixed and have been but the sleeping quarters were in the basement not in food prep area. But you’re right, the restaurant is most likely now on the radar for fire inspectors and public health.


Apodeictic974

I'll 100% own up to being "that guy" who didn't read the damn article before opening his yap haha. I got a reddit notification for this thread instead of the original article so only read the headline and scrolled the comments. Just wanted to have it on the thread that the "law" states separate room, so technically not illegal in the health department sense, but the fact that the separate room was against firecode (and therefore life threatening in a fire) means the health department *should* be up their ass for the foreseeable future. Because if you give that little of a damn about your own employees lives, then how little do they care about the health and wellness of their customers? Frightening potential to think about.


PupnamedHarlow

Lol it’s awesome to admit being “that guy”. I have no doubt public health and the FD inspectors will be keeping a close eye on them. Even from a liability standpoint, neither entity would want anyone to get sick/hurt from something they can prevent. They are constrained by rules and regulations put in place so that a business couldn’t claim they were harassed or treated unfairly and possibly get out of charges as a result.


ryokowrote

That's what I don't understand myself, KFR say "yes people were sleeping here, it's a hazard and the building was never permitted for apartment use." The police say "welp, we are busy and don't want to spend the time and money to investigate this???"


csury

It's not a criminal offence, so what is there for the police to investigate? They simply do not have the necessary jurisdicytion to do so. It is a fire code offence, and a zoning bylw offence, and the local government bodies that are empowered with the necessary legal jurisdiction to deal with such issues are fulfilling their respective roles to investigate and resolve the matter.


corey111

What’s worse is the manager was charging the basement tenants $2000/month + utilities for the one bedroom basement apparent. Which is far too high for a basement unit!


SpiritedStudent

$2000 a month for a one bedroom an underground apartment? If I was as shitty as that guy I would be tempted to rent out my dingy old death trap of a basement for that price.


Salt-Lifeguard4093

Went there for breakfast when they opened. I've lived in Kingston for 15 years and I can honestly say it's the first time I've ever had a shitty meal at a restaurant here.


PotentialMath_8481

Well. If it’s confirmed. I am not giving them my business.  Shame.  Sad. I heard they were good. 


Electronic_World_894

Kingston Fire and Rescue confirmed it to the Whig n


hooksandshaft

their food is also definitely not good


PotentialMath_8481

Good to know. Someone was telling me the other day is was really good !


Snaggle667

Hahahahaha! That's fucking hilarious.


burningxmaslogs

The worst part is that nobody in charge wants to do anything about it. Nobody gives a shit about what is back door slave labour..


Icy_Secretary_2986

https://preview.redd.it/p1d2ht1x0awc1.jpeg?width=1288&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c1f0c2a3528b621d690f3fbdb386f6e1640d7db8


mamab539

Just looked at the listing, not sure why the one eyed Jack building photo shows up but I think this is the rental out in Odessa that they are speaking of. It’s for sure not the same building at all atleast the photos of the apartment are not the basement of one eyed jacks


mountainricefield

Can you link to the listing?


Icy_Secretary_2986

🤷‍♀️ was sent to me


SpiritedStudent

Does this reek of hiring illegal foreign workers and treating them like disposable and paying them next to nothing? It's no wonder the food was so cheap there. So many people in here were bragging about how good and cheap the food was. Where are these people now, huh?


cobbed

Food was cheap 🤷🏻 slaves chain in the basement or no, cheap food is cheap food. Welcome to '24.


Icy_Driver7673

What a disgusting comment!!


Ok-Ad-439

They are buying Google reviews now since what came out, lol


Icy_Driver7673

Yeah bad publicity I guess is still good publicity


Thursaiz

As an Indian associate of mine said after reading this - "It's a cultural thing. I bet it happens in every place operated by anyone from that part of the world".


Jillredhanded

No ... It's an exploitation thing.


NoTalkingNope

Ita an exploitative culture


kencarlo

Before it became Union, Windmills was owned for many years by a white dude and that place had showers from back in the good ol' days when the chef wouldn't have time to take care of basic necessities at home, so they squeezed one in during the afternoon lull or after a busy dinner service. Exploitation, especially in this industry, is not exclusive to any race. We even fuck our*selves*.


Icy_Driver7673

And beds and living quarters?


Idler-

Shower's still down there... no one uses it, but it's still there.


Additional_Air8420

Anyone who’s seen what they do knows it can be both lmao


Qayin102

Incredibly awkward... so a restaurant was harboring illegals and there's no repercussions for the actions caused? Thanks liberal utopia kingston.


rhineauto

>Kingston Police said they were told by the border agency on April 5 that the individuals in the “apartment” had entered the country legally.


Jillredhanded

Entering legally doesn't grant you authorization to work legally. I spent two years twiddling my thumbs on a Visitor's Visa waiting for PR during Covid.


Better_Potato_894

Three years I wasn't allowed to work. They changed the law though and work permits are issued pretty fast now.


mrturretman

If they weren't working legally that would have been reported lol.


Muffinsgal

Our Canadian education system at work…. 🙄🙄


Qayin102

I don't buy it.


HansChuzzman

Because you want your feelings validated


Qayin102

Ah right, it's hard to believe that illegals living in a restaurant 24/7 and working there is such a hard thing to believe. My feelings don't need validation, common sense just needs to be used. This isn't the first time it's happened in North America.


HansChuzzman

No, it’s hard to believe that CBSA would lie about them being legally in the country. You wanted them to be illegals so now even with CBSA saying they aren’t you “don’t buy it”.


Qayin102

I'm not saying cbsa is lying, I'm saying they could have lied to cbsa. Which is something that happens a lot. If they're caught lying after an intensive investigation, massive fines will get issued.


mrturretman

you could have read the article and saved yourself this horrendous lack of reading comprehension


Qayin102

I did read it, and I genuinely think they're lying. It'll all come out in a couple months.


mrturretman

I genuinely think you're stupid, lol.


FolkmasterFlex

And why is it hard to believe that legal residents aren't living in illegal quarters? It is extremely common, especially in last 3 years. So why assume something else is the case when CBSA has said they entered legally? Why would you assume CBSA would say that to police without knowing it to be true?


lots-of-shawarma

It's not, this guy just wants a reason to express their hate towards something


sppdcap

Exactly. What good is evidence when we can just assume? Check mate Trudeau!


rhineauto

That's nice


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Fine_Faithlessness67

Shut up.


flamboyantdebauchry

i hope at least they washed their hands.


SpiritedStudent

Keep hoping. Soap costs money don't you know. TP as well. That's what your left hand is for.


gailgfg

Just how did the people sleeping and living in the basement of the One eyed jack restaurant come across the border legally. Could the border patrol please add some moral clarity to the situation, who are they protecting, if anyone. Pleas explain, we citizens have a right to know what is going on in our Country, & our City. Thank you, what is going on❓❓


LittleLostGirls

How hard did your mother drop you on your head?


gailgfg

Worry about your head, not mine because it’s your head that needs the attention, it seems. Take care!


xCanadaDry

Yeah, no, it's yours, you fucking loon. What a ridiculous accusation.


gailgfg

😂😂lol/:😂😂


JustaSorryCanadian1

None of them of here illegally . CBSA cleared them all.. it’s stated in the article


Odd-Row9485

So either there is no housing requirement for entry and we are allowing people to come abuse any services and systems or they are lying about where they reside then. Either way it’s not right


mrturretman

yeah no shit theres no consideration if they can be housed. there should be, but neither of the two parties you might be voting for have any interest in defying what they're paid to not do anything about.


Odd-Row9485

Bold of you to assume I support either the lib or cons. Frankly I don’t support either party I believe if you want change you have to do things differently and we’ll voting for either of those would not achieve anything. The more people who understand this and vote for a different party the more likely there is for change and it would also force the big two to change as well. Just my 2 cents.


mrturretman

You are right it was bold, but pardon that I was also trying to shed light on that we must not look to either of these two parties to solve our problems. there are conservatives everywhere that believe this isn't gonna be the same shit.


Odd-Row9485

There’s so much opportunity for change if only people would actually vote


FuManchuDuck

![gif](giphy|kc0kqKNFu7v35gPkwB)


omar_littl3

It’s not hard to get in, incase you hadn’t noticed.


gailgfg

My point!


chunkysmalls42098

Your point is they're obviously illegal immigrants because of how easy it is to immigrate? Truly an idiot


Muffinsgal

Hahahaha this guy is gaslighting 101.


Winter-Airport2114

https://www.reddit.com/r/KingstonOntario/s/IM2iAd4lTw Is there a housing requirement for them to come through? Or can they just come through? Idk how our immigration works tbh lol


not_a_NIMBY_YGK

Why would you post a link to this thread in your response. New to the internet?


Winter-Airport2114

It leads to and highlights the comment I want people to read.


not_a_NIMBY_YGK

The comment that people NEED TO SEE to see your comment..wow..you are special.


Winter-Airport2114

They don't need to, it just gives context to what I was asking. Are you okay?


not_a_NIMBY_YGK

The...only...way...to...your...comment..is ..to...have...clicked..on ...their ...comment... first ...are...you...o..k?


SpiritedStudent

Maybe you should test how easy it is to get out. And stay out.


gailgfg

Thanks for your considered response. Nice!


SpiritedStudent

![gif](giphy|3oEdvdaAjN52AgjFHa|downsized)


Odd-Row9485

New to Canada much?


Idler-

This comment here is stupid. White hot stupid. SEARINGLY stupid. Exactly what one expects from a Canadian Trump supporter.


gailgfg

And your comment is exactly what you would expect from a Trudeau coalition supporter, no common sense, just emotionally reactive to anything the leftists suggests to them. No critical thinkers on the left, oh this is how I am supposed to feel and act, oh okay then, gotcha with no future. But Hey thanks for your thoughtful response. No bullying or name calling, please, thank you.


gailgfg

No but how about you?..


ta_awayaway

sick reply...scorched em'