City’s 'VIP' emergency chiefs in stadium for World Series and Taylor Swift
· Toronto Sun
While many of us couldn’t afford to get into the building, some of the municipal government’s most powerful executives made an exception to work at the Rogers Centre during the World Series and Taylor Swift’s 2024 concerts.
The Toronto Sun has confirmed that executive-level officials at the City of Toronto’s emergency response departments – police, fire, paramedics and emergency management – worked at the Rogers Centre during multiple Swift concerts and World Series games, but they did not work at the stadium at any other time during the last two years.
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After a freedom-of-information request, the city told the Sun that the executive director of its emergency management division worked at 1 Blue Jays Way on Nov. 14, 15, 16 and 21, 2024 – dates that correspond with four of Swift’s six Toronto concerts – as well as Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 last year, when games 6 and 7 of the World Series were held.
The only person to ever hold that title is Joanna Beaven-Desjardins.
A Toronto Fire Services representative confirmed to the Sun that Chief Jim Jessop “was at the stadium” but did not provide details or dates. Two people have told the Sun that Jessop was at the stadium alongside Beaven-Desjardins.
Dates at the stadium were initially not provided for either the fire or paramedics chief. Representatives for each said both chiefs work “24/7” jobs that don’t involve “shifts,” so that information fell outside of the Sun ’s request.
The paramedic chief, Bikram Chawla, was confirmed to be at the stadium on only two days in those years, Nov. 22, 2024, and Oct. 25, 2025 – dates of a Swift show and a World Series game, respectively. Two of the paramedics’ deputy chiefs also worked during Swift’s shows and the Blue Jays’ post-season.
While Toronto Police Services is also subject to the request, the Sun has yet to receive any information from them. Under provincial law, that should’ve happened by March.
‘Seat-warmer’ positions?
In a statement, the city’s communications director Russell Baker said an “incident management team” was assembled for every Swift concert and World Series game to co-ordinate government resources with those at the Rogers Centre.
Each one “was staffed and structured in accordance with established incident management system best practices, including the appointment of an incident commander, to ensure clear leadership, co-ordination and effective decision-making,” Baker wrote.
But an official with one of the four emergency departments suggested the executive-level bureaucrats were enjoying a “VIP” perk while subordinates were left to do actual work. (The Sun has agreed to let this official speak anonymously to protect the person from possible reprisals at City Hall.)
If the city can’t explain exactly why its emergency leaders needed to be inside the Rogers Centre on those days, they were merely working “a seat-warmer position created for an executive to attend a high-profile event,” the official claimed.
The Blue Jays – which look after operations at the stadium as the primary tenant and, as with the venue, are wholly owned by Rogers – ignored requests for comment. The Sun has been told Rogers would’ve led any emergency response in its building, but City Hall hasn’t confirmed that.
City executives attended events with astronomical ticket prices
While the city executives attended events that were very high profile – and involved astronomical ticket prices – it’s unclear that there was anything unusual about emergency preparedness for either the Swift concerts or the World Series. While all those events sold out, that’s ordinary stuff at the Rogers Centre.
Last year, from the All-Star break – the unofficial halfway mark of the MLB season – to the end of the regular season, the Jays routinely played to sellout crowds. In that span, the team saw attendance dip below 40,000 in just three games.
The Swift concerts were also not unprecedented in terms of attendance. For example, Toronto singer The Weeknd played four sold-out shows at the venue last summer, apparently with none of the city’s emergency bosses at the building.
The city told the Sun that the paramedics’ deputy chief of operations, listed in an online directory as Melanie Jordison, was at the Rogers Centre on Nov. 21 and 22, 2024, and Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, 2025. The acting deputy chief of the central ambulance communications centre, Janice Baine, attended on Oct. 19, 2025.
Toronto Fire Services did not clarify if any of its deputy chiefs attended the stadium in 2024 or 2025, and would only say they “would not have been scheduled to work operational shifts, and any visit would have been to observe operations .” No TFS deputy chiefs were listed in the response to the Sun ’s freedom-of-information request.
City Hall did not clarify if the emergency executives would’ve been eligible for overtime or paid duty work.
The Sun has previously reported that policing Game 7 of the World Series cost more than $400,000 in overtime, and the emergency management division rang up $134,000 in staffing costs for the Swift concerts.