Jack, you haven't missed anything.

Organized-crime author and Toronto Star reporter Peter Edwards did not mention the Sicilian Cosa Nostra and 'ndrangheta members. Nor did he mention the venue. He can't mention names for the same various reasons all other writers who write about organized crime do not divulge the names of some people who are still alive: fear of libel, endangering the safety of named individuals, etc.

Even when a writer provides details about an unnamed individual mentioned in an article or a book, too many details or one minor detail will tip off the reader as to who the individual is -- and this may have disastrous consequences for the individual.

One educated guess I have about the 2011 interaction between Sicilian Cosa Nostra and 'ndrangheta members at the social function is that Edwards was referring to the fact that an important strategic mafia intermarriage took place in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in 2005 or 2006: a relative of Antonio Cammalleri married a relative of Cosimo Commisso. Cammalleri's niece is Vito Rizzuto's wife, Giovanna, who is originally from Toronto. Commisso, as many Canadian mobwatchers know, is the oldest of the three brothers who have had a long standing in the Canadian mafia. Law enforcement has dubbed the Sicilian Cosa Nostra group headed by Cammalleri the Toronto Sicilian Group -- it has been considered an arm or wing of the Rizzuto organization in Montreal. Commisso is believed to be the head of the 'ndrangheta Siderno Group organization in the GTA -- as capo crimine, he has the final say in a seven-man camera di controllo that consists of him and six other clan leaders.

I have previously mentioned on this forum and other forums the length, depth, and breadth of the friendly ties between mafiosi in Ontario and Quebec -- these ties span decades. Specifically, I trotted out Italian antimafia intelligence from the 2010 Operazione Il Crimine report on the Calabrian mafia to show close links in the previous decade between the Commisso clan (in Ontario and Italy) and the administration of the Montreal Mafia in the 2000s -- see, for example,

Montreal Mafia and the Siderno Group

This intelligence may support the argument that any Ontario-Calabrian-mob involvement in Montreal's mayhem the last few years did not come from the Siderno Group; therefore, when I read past or current articles that state Ontario is calling the shots in Montreal, I cringe or laugh. What I do concede is that there is a plausible theory the Luppino-Violi group in Hamilton was somehow involved in the high-profile murders of Paolo Renda, Agostino Cun-trera, and Nick Rizzuto Sr., as Paolo Violi's sons -- Domenico and Giuseppe -- might have wanted nothing more than to see the murders of their father and uncles avenged one day.

Nevertheless, I do not believe the Calabrian organized-crime groups in Ontario act as one. Ever.

The Italian antimafia intelligence, of course, might have been wrong to begin with or outdated -- which bothers me to no end because the Italian and Canadian authorities who battle Italian organized crime often butt heads about why Canadian law enforcement doesn't act on the intelligence provided by Italian law enforcement. The Italian report containing the intelligence was supposed to be current up to May 2010, and this report asserted that Vito Rizzuto was the head of a complex criminal organization based in Montreal that operated mostly in Montreal and Toronto and that consisted of multiple cells consisting of both Calabrian and Sicilian groups. Yet, as we all know, many writers of English-, French-, and Italian-language articles about the conflict in Montreal have no knowledge of this report and the intelligence contained therein and have simplistically framed the conflict in Montreal as Toronto-Calabrian-mob-group vs. Montreal-Sicilian-mob-group, Ontario-Calabrian-mob-groups vs. Montreal-Sicilian-mob-group, Ontario-Calabrian-and-Montreal-Calabrian-mob-groups vs. Montreal-Sicilian-mob-group, 'ndrangheta vs. Sicilian Cosa Nostra, etc.

I think that by now many posters here and on other organized-crime forums have seen how homogeneous the Montreal Mafia has been since at least the late 1980s, that many influential Montrealers have neither Sicilian nor Calabrian ancestry but ancestry from other Italian regions, and that even seasoned journalists and organized-crime experts -- both those based in Quebec and Ontario -- have misidentified organized-crime figures as being Calabrian, in some cases believing for decades that someone such as Jos Di Maulo was born in Calabria when in fact he was born in Campobasso, Molise.

While I understand that Vito Rizzuto may have lost allies he once had in the GTA up to at least the mid-2000s, I don't understand how journalists and writers who follow Italian organized crime seem to be unaware of the important organized-crime figures in Ontario that Vito, his father, and others like Francesco Arcadi had known -- as though the Rizzuto organization had no established roots in Toronto; as though the Rizzutos didn't know anyone in the GTA, Hamilton, or Ottawa; as though the Montreal Mafia had no revenue from criminal activities in Ontario. People should read the revised edition of The Sixth Family to see more clearly the influence that law enforcement believed Vito to have in the GTA. (pp. 320, 321) We should remember that in the 1980s Nick Rizzuto Sr. had established residence in Toronto for a short period, living in the city up until late 1987 -- see, for example, the newspaper articles cited below:

Ex-Metro man facing drug charges after Venezuelan cocaine-ring bust:[SU2 Edition]. Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: Feb 14, 1988. p. A4

Mounties work to halt drugs entering Canada:[FIN Edition]. Kevin Donovan. Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: Feb 15, 1988. p. A8

Throughout Canadian mafia history, members of American LCN, Sicilian CN, and the 'ndrangheta have often run in the same circles and without friction. In December 1991, Peter Edwards and a colleague respectively wrote two articles about a gambling-house raid in Toronto that listed many organized-crime figures who were arrested and charged -- the excerpts below illustrate the intersection I mentioned just above.

Charged with being found in a common gaming house and being found in a common betting house are Peter Scarcella, 41, of Misty Meadow Dr., Woodbridge; Enio Mora, 42, of Northpark Dr., Toronto; Giacinto Arcuri, 61, of Reiner Rd., Toronto; and Antonino Cammalleri, 62, of Hartley Ave., Toronto.

Source: Police arrest 41 in big-money gambling raid:[SA2 Edition]. Peter Edwards. Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: Dec 14, 1991. p. A23

A week later, an update on the story was published. From the article:

Charged with being found in a common betting house and being found in a common gaming house are: Biagio Guarraggi, 38, of Ennerdale Rd., Salvatore Crimi, 44, of Lansdowne Ave., Visanto Mastrianni, 37, of Times Rd., Salvatore Villa, 47, of Roundtree Dr. in Rexdale, Umberto Campagna, 50, of Dynevor Rd., Mark Vitale, 50, of Newport Sq. in Thornhill, Massemo Santobuono, 27, of Lauder Ave., Nick Galifi, 56, of Kingdom St., Antonio Carullo, 41, of Valleyway Cres. in Maple, Corrado Gambon, 44, of Davenport Rd., Frank Vocaturo, 38, of Oakwood Ave., Carlo Rizzuto, 42, of Joan Dr. in Mississauga, and Giuseppe Andriano, 43, of Ramsden Rd.

Source: More gambling charges laid in second police raid on cafe:[SA2 Edition]. Brixton Lagac. Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: Dec 21, 1991. p. A7

The last name in the above list is that of one of the seven Siderno Group clan leaders in the GTA who were named in the Operazione Il Crimine report: Giuseppe Andriano, or Andrianò.