by OLIVIA FORSYTH-SELLS for urbanemagazine.org.

A notorious bicycle dealing king pin was arrested on numerous counts of bicycle theft and drug possession.  Igor Kenk, the owner of a bicycle repair shop located on Queen Street West was let off with, arguably, a worthless and insignificant sentence.  After years of questionable behavior, and rumours about illegal dealings, many local shop owners were suspicious of his true intentions as a business owner.  Accounts were made of several bicycle couriers breaking the windows in his shop to retrieve the bikes that all too often went missing in the area.

These acts eventually came to a head when a local police officer witnessed a man clipping a bike in the area and brought it to Mr. Kenk, who in turn he gave cash.  The raid resulted in the discovery of just under 3000 bikes, and this was coupled with over $70,000 worth of drugs within his home in Yorkville.  These events occurred in July 2009, and after being charged Kenk was released on bail a few weeks later.  He returned to prison however this December on an assault charge.  Surprisingly, bicycle theft in the city of Toronto has dropped significantly, as well, the bicycle registry program has seen a large increase.  However, bicycle theft is still a major problem.

Many Toronto cyclists are enraged at the minimal sentence Kenk faced due to his leadership of a huge organized crime ring. He removed many Torontonians’ access to an alternative, clean form of transportation.  Only 58 of the bike theft charges Kenk faced were pursued by the Crown, and he was convicted of even fewer; only 10 counts of bicycle theft were included in the sentencing.  He served a minor sentence for the capacity of his crime, and many are left wondering whether the punishment was too light.  In an informal poll run by blogTO, a staggering 82% of respondents said that his sentence “wasn’t punishment enough”.  All things considered, I believe it is important to look at the positive outcome of the situation; the cyclists of Toronto are now far more conscious of the importance of proper bike locking (and of owning a high quality lock), and Mr. Kenk is now documented and recognized.  The possibility of him reoffending in the same manner seems small, though Torontonians have to deal with the spectre of other, as of yet uncovered bicycle theft rings.