Bots for Poilievre: who's behind those awkward tweets?

Plus, the pricy Pioneer Village TTC stop and Conrad Black's "ancestral home" [The Star] First Up [By Kevin Jiang] By Kevin Jiang Good morning. Here’s the latest on the TTC’s very expensive Pioneer Village station, Conrad Black’s real estate wars and the bots backing Pierre Poilievre. DON’T MISS R.J. Johnston/The Star star exclusive [The TTC has been ordered to pay millions after years of delays]( The TTC must pay the company that built Pioneer Village station almost $60 million after a court found the agency responsible for years of delays on the project, Ben Spurr reports. The station was one of six stops built as part of the Spadina subway extension — which opened two years late and hundreds of millions over budget. [Take a look at what went wrong](. - Go deeper: Walsh Construction claimed the TTC hadn’t finalized its plans for the station when it ordered the company to start building, leading to thousands of revisions and additional costs it wasn’t compensated for. The TTC argued Walsh shared responsibility. - Ballooning budget: Even before the ruling, Pioneer Village had cost taxpayers far more than expected. Walsh’s initial contract was for $166 million; it ended up costing $223 million. - Wait, what? Among Walsh’s grievances was a $2 million art installation that was never turned on, after the TTC deemed it inappropriate — [something that “should have been obvious to anyone with a scintilla of common sense,” the judge wrote](. Canadian Press File Photo courts [Conrad Black sued his old friend for selling his “ancestral home”]( The ex-media baron is suing his old friend Harold Peerenboom for $12 million after he sold Black’s “ancestral home,” Jacques Gallant reports. Peerenboom bought the Bridle Path mansion in 2016 for $14 million, after the CRA found Black owed $15 million in unpaid taxes. The two allegedly made a verbal contract to split the profits — [but when it sold for $36.5 million last year, Black didn’t see a dime]( - The tea: The plan was for Peerenboom to lease the property back to Black, after the CRA placed liens on the nine-bedroom, 11-bathroom home over unpaid taxes. Black and his family moved out in 2020. - Unfriended: The lawsuit is a far cry from how Black described his “old friend” of 50 years in a 2019 National Post column, writing how Peerenboom did him a “favour” by helping him “in residential matters when I was dealing with a pressing tax problem.”  Canadian Press/Christinne Muschi battle bots [Who really posted those awkward tweets praising a Pierre Poilievre rally?]( If you’ve been on the website formerly known as Twitter lately, you might have encountered hundreds of awkwardly worded, near-identical posts praising Poilievre’s rally last week — what experts call a coordinated bot operation. “This is pretty rudimentary — like, it’s just copying and pasting and amplifying messages,” an expert tells Alex Boyd. “It’s a bit weird to me.” [Where are these posts coming from?]( - Word from Conservatives: “The CPC does not pay for bots and has no idea who is behind these accounts,” a spokesperson said over email. - Word from robots: The hundreds of posts from users who listed their locations as Russia, New York, the U.K. and more all said some variation of how they “just got back” from the rally in a small Ontario town and are “buzzing from the energy.” - Expert analysis: Given the lack of sophistication, the instigator could be an amateur looking to drum up support or someone testing the limits of what was possible with bots, an expert said. The campaign could also have been made easy to detect by design, intended to sow doubts about the strength of our democracy. WHAT ELSE When the Greenbelt scandal broke, Doug Ford was all apologies. [What a difference a year makes](. Are private health care providers breaking the law? [Four doctors speak out on for-profit care in Canada](. The GTA is under yet another [special weather statement for heavy rainfall and flooding](. Out of work? You may be out of luck. [Here’s why getting EI is harder than ever](. The victim in a Toronto murder case involving chemicals was [arrested at a mall — with his alleged killer](. Jordan Peterson’s free speech crusade ended after the [Supreme Court dismissed his application for leave to appeal](. Game on: ABC News says [Donald Trump has finally agreed to debate Kamala Harris on Saturday](. The Perseids are here. [Here’s how to watch the “fireballs” of summer’s brightest meteor shower](. Maude Charron won silver at the Paris Olympics after taking gold in Tokyo. [This time she heard the cheers](. Tom Cruise is expected to close the Olympics with a dazzling stunt in Paris. [Take a sneak peek of what he has in store](. The beloved star of “Wok With Yan” is back after three decades. [What’s he been doing away from the spotlight?]( “I feel guilty for past me.” [Why body positivity influencers are trying out Ozempic](. POV Steve Cornwell/Metroland [Carolyn Parrish is already failing Mississauga — and she’s playing right into Doug Ford’s hands.]( CLOSE-UP Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld PARIS: Skylar Park hugs her coach — who is also her dad — after winning bronze in Olympic taekwondo yesterday, becoming the third-ever Canadian medallist in the sport. [“When that final buzzer went, it was just pure joy for what we’ve been through as a team and a family,” she told Allan Woods](. Thank you for reading. You can reach me and the First Up team at [firstup@thestar.ca](mailto:firstup@thestar.ca?source=newsletter&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=emailutm_email=6C53B63A8E3FAD70AD4EF13004527437&utm_campaign=frst_218048). Andrew will see you back here tomorrow. If you're not enjoying these emails, please tell us how we can make them better by emailing newsletterfeedback@thestar.ca. Or, if you'd prefer, you can unsubscribe from this newsletter by clicking the first link below. [Unsubscribe From This Newsletter]( [Sign Up for More Newsletters and Email Alerts]( [View in Browser]( Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. 8 Spadina Avenue, 10th Floor, Toronto, ON M5V 0S8. 416-367-2000 [PRIVACY POLICY](