Deepali Kashyap and Rakshit Chauhan were playing with their two-year-old daughter inside their North York highrise.
asserted
Kashyap → play → highrise
The couple, who had moved into their 19th floor unit on Graydon Hall Drive two months earlier, said they were just steps away from their toddler, Khanak Rakshit, when she “gently touched” a bedroom window.
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she → move → window
Its glass broke.
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glass → break → ?
On the ground floor, neighbours had been celebrating Mother’s Day when they heard the thud.
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they → celebrate → thud
Scrambling outside to see what had fallen, they discovered the little girl’s body on the lawn.
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they → scramble → lawn
Kashyap and Chauhan rushed downstairs, but there was nothing they could do.
uncertain
they → rush → ?
Their daughter was carried into the neighbour’s unit, and soon their building was awash with Toronto police officers.
asserted
building → carry → officers
The child’s family is now suing the owners and managers of the building, alleging that unsafe window glass and inadequate maintenance contributed to their daughter’s death at 50 Graydon Hall Dr.
The allegations highlight a broader concern tenants have about the condition of the Graydon Hall buildings, and whether the city’s inspections and the properties’ high RentSafeTO scores accurately reflect the conditions residents face.
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residents → sue → conditions
The May 10 incident is still being investigated, police say.
uncertain
police → investigate → ?
Michael Smitiuch, the family’s lawyer, noted that RentSafeTO, the city of Toronto’s apartment-building enforcement and inspection program, had given the building in the Don Mills/401 area a passing score.
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RentSafeTO → note → score
“That is extremely disturbing that they can get a pass when it was evident that this glass was extremely fragile.
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glass → get → pass
Especially when you have young children who will be living in these apartments.
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who → have → apartments
The lawsuit names GH Capital Corp. and two property managers as defendants and seeks $18 million in damages.
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lawsuit → name → damages
The deceased child’s family alleges management had been warned about problems with the glass but failed to properly inspect, maintain or replace it.
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management → allege → it
“These are single-pane windows, which are extremely thin,” Smitiuch said.
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Smitiuch → say → ?
“It’s frightening.”
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It → ’ → ?
Smitiuch says the family hopes this lawsuit will force the government to bring attention to “the standards and the safety within these buildings.”
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lawsuit → say → buildings
The Star contacted Horton & Horton, the law firm representing the defendants, but it declined to comment.
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it → contact → defendants
According to Smitiuch, no statement of defence has been filed.
uncertain
statement → accord → defence
The allegations have not yet been tested in court.
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allegations → test → court
As the ground-floor neighbour paced around the building, smoking a cigarette, he told the Star the girl’s parents “told the property management that the window was bad, but they didn’t do anything about it.”
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they → pace → it
He was barred from entering his unit, where the child was, until police were done.
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police → bar → unit
Neighbours say buildings have history of window issues
Under the Ontario Building Code, glass in a highrise’s exterior windows must meet requirements for structural strength, including the ability to withstand strong wind pressure.
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glass → say → pressure
The code also sets specific requirements for shatter-resistant glass in locations where people could come into contact with the glass.
uncertain
people → set → glass
In this case, the centre of the bedroom window was about two feet above the floor, placing the glass close to where a child could be in contact with it.
uncertain
child → place → it
According to Smitiuch, a glass expert hired by his firm confirmed that the unit at 50 Graydon had annealed glass, an untreated glass significantly weaker than tempered or laminated safety glass.
uncertain
unit → accord → glass
On a website that GH Capital Corp.‘s tenants use to request maintenance work, the Star was shown several requests related to windows.
“The windows in the master bedroom need sealing,” read one message to the maintenance staff on March 5.
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message → use → March
Another on April 14 said “two glasses of the balcony door broke on their own one after the other” within five minutes.
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glasses → say → minutes
A Toronto family is suing for $18M, alleging unsafe window glass caused their toddler’s fatal 19-storey fall.
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glass → sue → fall
A Toronto family is suing for $18M, alleging unsafe window glass caused their toddler’s fatal 19-storey fall.
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glass → sue → fall
Other tenants from neighbouring buildings owned by the same landlord — 100 and 150 Graydon Hall — spoke of glass randomly cracking in their units, or water leaking through their windows during rainfall.
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glass → neighbour → rainfall
Marie Kouakou told the Star she came home one day last summer to find the window cracked.
“I left it and said I’ll get to it whenever,” she said, adding that later that day, she returned to find a piece of the glass had now fallen off.
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piece → tell → glass
While Kouakou said the crack could have happened from someone throwing something at her second-floor window, she said she believes it was the effects of high winds and rain.
uncertain
it → say → winds
Other neighbours shared similar stories.
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neighbours → share → stories
“Every high-wind storm you can feel the windows move or the wind coming through cracks.”
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wind → feel → cracks
Upon getting her window replaced, Robson said it cracked again within two hours.
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it → get → hours
Maintenance “mentioned he had never seen this before.
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he → mention → this
On the east side of the building, Kurlyla Leonce said she sometimes heard her window crackling as the morning sun warmed it, which she believed was caused by the change in temperature.
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she → say → temperature
Leonce said she has urged management to overhaul the building’s windows in the past, arguing the “flimsy one-layer glass” should have been changed years ago.
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glass → say → past
“I tried to shoo away some pigeons from my window and was tapping on the glass and the window just cracked,” Leonce recalled.
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Leonce → try → glass
…and 53 more, not listed.
The Aporia
