The Poster Brat for Occupy Toronto

His daddy is rich, rich, rich (the Toronto Star reports that he divides "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 [he] drives a Ferrari 360"). His kid, however, is a different story. Broke and aimless, he's nearing his mid 30s, is educated up the yin-yang, but has yet to figure out how to support himself:

After graduating high school, [Antonin] 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.

Mongeau says his only experience as a 1 per center came during the early years of university. He and a friend began an Internet company called bounce2this, which created and hosted web sites. Mongeau claims the venture briefly made him a “millionaire” and landed him a condo. A larger company eventually bought it out, he says.

“My parents weren’t 1 per cent until after I left home,” he says. “I was one of my own accord thanks to the Internet. Please don’t mislead your readers.”

But 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 share owner 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.”

In October, Mongeau surprised French Club members by announcing in an email that he would be temporarily leaving his post as president to join Occupy Toronto.

Mongeau felt compelled to join the movement, in part, because of his disgust with corporations and their obsession with growth, often at the expense of human rights.

He was also drawn to its emphasis on obliterating class divides, he says.

“The Occupy movement comes with the tacit acknowledgement that the base of all our problems is class,” he says. “That’s what I’d been waiting for.”

That's what he'd been waiting for, indeed--something to justify and excuse his own fecklessness. (Maybe he should have studied something other than "semiotics"; in times of recession--and other times, too--there doesn't seem to be a great demand for semioticians.