The Globe "Former YTV Child Actor" Article, and the Record
On February 2, 2024, ten days after the SID property companies applied for court protection, The Globe and Mail published an article headlined Former YTV child actor's Northern Ontario real estate empire files for insolvency. This page sets its main statements, in summary, beside the public record, including what the record shows since.
The short answer
The article reports the companies' application for protection under the CCAA. It reports no finding against anyone. It was published on February 2, 2024, four months before the Monitor's Fourth Report of June 11, 2024. A CCAA proceeding is a court-supervised restructuring, not a bankruptcy. No court has found that Mr. Clark or the companies misappropriated funds.
What the article reports, and what the record shows
| What the article reports | What the record shows |
|---|---|
| The enterprise sought creditor protection while facing about $144 million of debt. | The companies applied for protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act on January 23, 2024. A CCAA proceeding is a court-supervised restructuring, not a bankruptcy. $144 million was the debt figure at filing: about $90.1 million of mortgages and $54.2 million of promissory notes. The Monitor's pre-filing report put the estimated appraised value of the homes at about $173 million. The Monitor later described the $54.2 million as "the amount initially provided by Ms. Drage", the broker, and reported that a reconciliation "has not been completed". The companies' own reconciliation puts the promissory note debt at about $22.06 million.Endorsement of Justice Kimmel, Jan 23, 2024; Third Report of the Monitor (Apr 2024), s.2.0; Pre-Filing Report of the Proposed Monitor (Jan 2024), s.2.0 paras 3 to 4; Eleventh Report of the Monitor (Feb 20, 2025), s.2 para 3; Motion Record of the Applicants (Jun 20, 2024), including the affidavit of Robert Clark, Clark affidavit para 21(h) |
| The companies own 405 rental properties with 631 rental units. | The article reports this accurately. The Monitor's pre-filing report states that the property companies "currently own 405 residential properties", and put the estimated appraised value of the homes at about $173 million.Pre-Filing Report of the Proposed Monitor (Jan 2024), s.2.0 paras 3 to 4 |
| Court documents say the companies bought and sold more than 800 properties. | The companies' sworn evidence is that since inception the group acquired, renovated, leased or sold more than 800 underused properties in Ontario, providing more than 1,200 rental units, and raised and invested about $100M to do it.Motion Record of the Applicants (Jun 20, 2024), including the affidavit of Robert Clark, Clark affidavit paras 1 and 4; Application Record, Vol. 1, including the first affidavit of Robert Clark (Jan 23, 2024), first affidavit paras 5, 44 and 45 |
| In 2022 the companies sold 223 rental properties to Core Development Group, which paid off the mortgage lenders on those homes. | The article reports this accurately. The sale closed in or around May 2022 for $75,850,443. After the lenders were repaid, the vendors' counsel's trust ledger shows $11.6 million for the sellers.Fourth Report of the Monitor, redacted (Jun 11, 2024), s.4.5 para 1; Motion Record of the Applicants (Jun 20, 2024), including the affidavit of Robert Clark, Exhibit O, item A.12 |
| The application says the companies face a severe liquidity crisis. | The companies' sworn evidence at filing states that the group "began exploring refinancing and sale opportunities in early 2022", and that its financing efforts were "hampered by the Bank of Canada's repeated interest rate increases commencing in March 2022 and falling home prices". The Bank of Canada's annual report for 2022 describes "the most rapid tightening cycle in Canada's history".Application Record, Vol. 1, including the first affidavit of Robert Clark (Jan 23, 2024), first affidavit paras 10 and 102; Bank of Canada, Annual Report 2022 |
| A Hamilton brokerage arranged most of the lending, pairing hundreds of private lenders with the companies. | The article reports this accurately. In December 2025 the broker admitted to fraud in a settlement with the Ontario Securities Commission. The Capital Markets Tribunal found that "Drage committed a large-scale fraud". In March 2026 Ontario's financial services regulator imposed $600,000 in penalties. No borrower company was a respondent.OSC Settlement Agreement, Claire Drage et al. (Dec 16, 2025), para 52; Capital Markets Tribunal reasons, 2026 ONCMT 1 (Jan 16, 2026), para 8; FSRA announcement: $600,000 penalties (Mar 2026) |
| A lender says she feels misled about the borrower she was lending to. | The companies' sworn evidence is that they did not deal with the lenders directly: the broker's firms prepared the notes and the marketing. The Ontario Securities Commission settlement recorded that the broker's statements to investors were "false and misleading" and that the borrowers "had little to no communication with the Investors".Motion Record of the Applicants (Jun 20, 2024), including the affidavit of Robert Clark, Clark affidavit para 72(b)(i); Factum of the Applicants (Jun 23, 2024), para 5; OSC Settlement Agreement, Claire Drage et al. (Dec 16, 2025), paras 17, 39 and 52 |
The coverage, article by article · Robby Clark and SID Developments · Robby Clark, real estate investor · The 2022 Core sale · Who raised the money · The $144 million
What cuts the other way
- The article accurately reports the filing, the debt figures in the application and the number of properties. The Globe and Mail, Feb 2, 2024
- The companies' own application stated that they were in default on nearly all of their loans and had under $100,000 in cash, as the article reports. The Globe and Mail, Feb 2, 2024
- On December 6, 2024 the court found the companies' $140M valuation of the portfolio "not credible". Endorsement of Justice Osborne (Dec 6, 2024), paras 10 to 11