Jennifer Yang, Staff Reporter
Photo: Kevin Janos Konnyu
Antonin Mongeau -- alias 'Antonin Smith' -- holds court at a planning meeting for Occupy Toronto. The occupiers spent more than five weeks in St. James Park, protesting economic inequality.
He chose the pseudonym “Smith,” the most common of English monikers. It is a name for regular folk and the plebian masses; it is a name for the 99 percent. In October, a burly, curly-haired activist calling himself Antonin Smith moved into St. James Park, the nexus of the Occupy Toronto movement. Over the next two months, Smith – or “Agent Smith,” as he sometimes referred to himself – became one of the most controversial and outspoken citizens of Occupy Toronto, making himself a de facto spokesperson for a movement that did not want one.
So when Antonin became a Smith, he tucked away Antonin Yvan Mongeau – owner of a Yonge and Eglinton loft, former president of a briefly lucrative web company, and the 34-year-old estranged son of David Charles Mongeau, an international investment banker and the antithesis of Occupy Toronto.
Last fall, as Mongeau slept in a tent and railed against Wall Street, his father was dividing his time between Monaco – where he and his wife have a palatial luxury apartment – and England, where his investment banking firm keeps a posh London address and Mongeau drives a Ferrari 360, according to a 2009 newspaper report.
“I have experienced radical swings in class, but I’ve never wanted for much,” he says. “When I was 17 I lived on welfare, by the time I was 22 the Internet had made me a millionaire.”
Mongeau owns a Yonge and Eglinton loft but appears to spend little time there. He claims to be a one-time dotcom millionaire but now tweets about the evils of capitalism. He says his bank account has a balance of just 46 cents but last January, he took out a $50,000 loan from his mother, according to his condo’s mortgage record.
… The relationship between Mongeau and his parents began to fracture. When he was 17, he claims, they kicked him out.
“I lived on welfare in a boarding house,” he says. “I was 17 and homeless.”
Mongeau would not answer questions about why his parents kicked him out, the location of the boarding house, how long he lived there, or where he wound up afterwards. He says his parents later tried getting him into boarding school, but he eventually graduated from Bayview Secondary School in 1998 at the age of 20.
After graduating high school, Mongeau enrolled at the University of Toronto, studying semiotics and becoming heavily involved with the French Club, where he still serves as president. He has not yet received his degree, U of T records show.
… His father lurked at the edge of his success. His condo was bought from his dad, who sold it to him for $50,000 less than what David Mongeau paid one-year prior. His web business, too, was largely acquired by a company called Zconnexx, which became a 65 per cent shareowner in 2000. “David C. Mongeau” is listed as a one-time board director with Zconnexx, according to a TMX database.
In January 2011, mortgage records show, Mongeau took out $50,000 from his mother at a 10 per cent interest rate. The loan was backed against his condo.
Occupiers who met Mongeau in the park said he sometimes complained about the high costs of his condo and worried about losing his home. He would not answer questions about the loan but says he is now “back to being poor” with less than 50 cents to his name. Mongeau says he works as a copy editor and freelancer “but it’s not enough to make ends meet.”
“Half the reason I went to Occupy was just to camp,” he says. “I love camping.”
“It’s hard to even want to align with Occupy Toronto anymore,” Mongeau says. “I came for a revolution and now I find myself encircled by a group of neo-hippie repeatniks who float somewhere between consternation and indifference.”
But would he participate in a second Occupy Toronto? “Ya, I’ll be there,” he says. “I love camping.”
HE LOOKS WELL - FED TO ME!
No comments:
Post a Comment