| "HOUSTON V. HOUSTON ET AL." CONTINUED |
SUPREME COURT OF BRITISH COLUMBIA GAMES
I was knocked down but not out. Or maybe I was just still naively green enough to think that I
could navigate BC's judicial minefield. In July 2002 I took a deep breath, put the probation breach
fiasco behind me and began shopping for yet another lawyer willing to present the facts before a
BC Supreme Court judge so I could get my companies back. After calling a half dozen firms, on
July 12, 2002 I talked to a Vancouver lawyer called Nathan S. Ganapathi of Ganapathi & Company.
I liked his style so we met the next day at his Yaletown office. He came across as genuinely
interested in my case, intelligent, diligent, and, most importantly, he presented himself to me as
being connected. He said it would cost me an estimated $7,500 plus disbursements and taxes to
appear and argue the case before a judge. After having spent $32,000 on Ahrens' criminal
proceedings $7,500 seemed like chump change. I retained him. My mercenary hired, the next
order of business was to engage the enemy. Ganapathi contacted Veinotte who, not surprisingly,
balked at the notion of entering into any kind of dialogue. In a knee-jerk attempt at repelling me
Veinotte undertook a ramshackle assault of defensive measures. Knowing that a cross-examination
of my brain-damaged father on his bullshit affidavit was all that was required to expose fraud and
misrepresentation, Ganapathi requested my dad be made available for questioning. In a letter
dated August 12, 2002 Veinotte refused our request telling Ganapathi that my father would not be
made available without a court order and furthermore, because the time period for appeal had
expired, he and his client were out of luck to kill the Burnyeat Order. Then came the return
of Graham Phillips, on paper anyway. On September 26, 2002 Veinotte threatened to hit me with
something the lawyers call "taxation," that is, to compel me through court action to pay the legal
costs accrued in the acquisition of court orders. He began with the Patterson Order obtained by
Harrop Phillips Powell & Gray. The Patterson Order was granted on March 1, 2001 and now, 18
months later when I decide to open my mouth and start talking, Phillips figures it's time to send me
the bill. Phillips wants $5,339.92. Veinotte also threatens taxation of $5,589.47 for the Burnyeat
Order of January 28, 2002. Then Veinotte produced two illegible cheques he claimed I had written
against my company Alco Enterprises Ltd. after my release from jail. Claiming that I had written
the cheques for personal benefit, without any proof, Veinotte demands that I immediately come up
with $12,000, on top of the $10,929.39 taxation, and hand it over to him. This was Veinotte's
September 26, 2002 defensive onslaught. The tactic here is financial warfare -- the lawyers do
everything in their power to empty your coffers so it becomes financially impossible for you to
afford representation or, at the very least, to discourage you from opposing them. They whack you
with economic shock. Then on October 11, 2002 Veinotte served me with a notice of motion that
he was seeking to have a judge slap me with a contempt of court order for writing the Alco
Enterprises cheques in defiance of the Boyd Order. Veinotte was also on the horn to the
commercial crime unit of the RCMP and the Vancouver Police Department trying to have me
thrown back in the can. It smelt like panic.
Ganapathi wanted the matter heard in front of Justice Burnyeat. The rather lax standards he
employed in granting an order that involved very large sums of my companies' capital made me
question Burnyeat's competence as a judge, but Ganapathi insisted Burnyeat was the one to rectify
the situation. So while we waited five months for Burnyeat to return from summer recess we
prepared our affidavits and watched $1.2 million in corporate assets disappear from the bank
accounts. Finally, the date of Friday, November 1, 2002 is secured for a court engagement at which
Ganapathi intends to request that Burnyeat order Veinotte's firm Taylor Veinotte Sullivan be
removed as counsel on the grounds that they are in breach of the rules of court. It is at this point
that I am suddenly forced to question Ganapathi's ethics and loyalty to his client. Two days before
that crucial court date, on Wednesday, October 30, 2002, Ganapathi sends me an e-mail demanding
that I deliver a cheque for $10,000 to his office before the close of business the following day or he
is withdrawing as solicitor leaving me high and dry for Friday's court engagement. It was a classic
example of the bait and switch technique used by these parasites as they bleed you like leeches. I
paid the $10K. What the hell else was I supposed to do? I should have known that the $7,500
Ganapathi quoted to handle this mess was too good to be true. He ended up billing me $25,000.
On Friday, November 1, 2002 Ganapathi and I arrive at BC Supreme Court for a 9:30 a.m.
hearing. I finally get to see him in person, my arch nemesis, my personal Antichrist, the enforcer
for the Vancouver legal community who leads the charge in the abolition of my dreams and my
family's financial security. Carey D. Veinotte is an imposing, heavyset, bald man in his mid-thirties,
younger than I expected. He has heavy, sleepy eyelids and his eyes are sunk deep into his skull.
Veinotte obtained his law degree in 1991 from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He
was called to the Bar of BC in 1993 and worked for a time in the Vancouver offices of law firm
Miller Thomson LLP. Miller Thomson has offices across Canada as well as one foreign office - in
Washington, D.C. Miller Thomson does not have an office in Canada's capital, Ottawa, Ontario.
Claiming to fear for his safety, Veinotte demands that I be frisked for weapons and that a sheriff be
present in the courtroom at all times. Veinotte and two other lawyers are in attendance to defend
Veinotte's conduct. Because Veinotte had written an affidavit defending himself against my charge
of his failure to comply with court rules he is now forbidden from acting as counsel in the matter
but, as with Phillips and all the lawyers before him, Veinotte's law partner Robert W. Taylor
emerges to defend his associate and carry on the battle. Veinotte and Taylor worked together at
Miller Thomson LLP as well as at Walsh & Company. It's like facing an unstoppable army of
shambling, brain dead zombies. You eliminate one then another appears to take its place, regardless
of the logic or rationale of the situation. As Ganapathi prepares to put forth his argument for
disqualifying Taylor Veinotte Sullivan as solicitors, Burnyeat cuts him short, declaring that he has
no jurisdiction to disqualify lawyers from an action, rather this measure can only be undertaken by
The Law Society of British Columbia. Problem. Big problem. I had already reported Veinotte to
The Law Society and their response was that my concerns could only be dealt with in a court of
law. To add insult to injury, Burnyeat orders that I pay Taylor Veinotte Sullivan's costs for the
fifteen minutes we had spent in court that morning. He assesses the amount at $1,000. I bring
massive impropriety to the attention of the judge who presided over the matter and his response is
to fine me for my candour. For whatever reason, Burnyeat is steadfastly siding with my
adversaries. No one is willing to admit to making a mistake. I'm starting to get the picture here and
it ain't pretty. Here's how it works: Your money is stolen by an organized network of renegade
lawyers. You are deceived into believing you can get your money back but in order to do so first
you have to cough up a small fortune and then dress up in your best suit and head down to their
clubhouse and beg. I got the message. If your car was stolen and then recovered by the police you
would expect to have the vehicle returned to you, right? It doesn't work that way here. Of course
my disabled father was nowhere to be seen in all of this. The lawyers were not working for him,
they weren't even working with my sister anymore. They were defending themselves.
In addition to rendering a costs judgment against me, Justice Burnyeat also decided that my father,
my mother, my sister and I would be cross-examined on our affidavit testimony. However,
Ganapathi and Taylor defiantly refused to draw up the order and enter these extremely important
judgments at the BC Supreme Court. Instead Ganapathi quietly made the $1,000.00 payment to
Taylor Veinotte Sullivan from fees I'd paid into Ganapathi & Company in trust and the two lawyers
conspired to suppress the cross-examination orders.
Another hearing was scheduled for Thursday, November 7, 2002 at which we would attempt to
have the orders that removed me from my companies set aside. The afternoon before the hearing
Ganapathi e-mailed me saying that Taylor Veinotte Sullivan where looking for a compromise that
would avoid a trial. I wanted to nail the fuckers to the courtroom wall but Ganapathi wouldn't have
it. I think the tenacity of our adversaries was taking its toll; they had worn him down and he was
getting tired. It was just Ganapathi and me against a mob that included an ex-judge, among others.
Ganapathi and Taylor Veinotte Sullivan made a deal amongst themselves that would hand what
remained of the assets over to a receiver manager while a settlement was negotiated through a
mediator. Taylor Veinotte Sullivan insisted that PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. be appointed
receiver. The home office of PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. is in New York, USA.
Ganapathi requested that a smaller, independent, more economical firm be brought in to protect the
corporate assets. The question of receiver was put to Burnyeat the next morning in BC Supreme
Court. Again he sided with Taylor Veinotte Sullivan, thus PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. was
appointed receiver of the respondent companies Alco Enterprises Ltd., Powell River Investments
Ltd. and Cedar Grove Holdings Inc. With the assets tentatively secure, it was time to get out of
Vancouver's cash gorging quagmire. Fast. I knew everyone, including Ganapathi, was eyeing the
healthy pool of corporate capital (Ganapathi had suggested that all legal fees, including Taylor
Veinotte Sullivan's, be paid by my companies). I fired Ganapathi and pulled out. Now it was time
for Taylor Veinotte Sullivan to pay off the fence.
On April 1, 2003 Robert W. Taylor of Taylor Veinotte Sullivan appeared before Justice Burnyeat
again in an application by PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. Oddly, although the application was
brought by PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc., PwC wasn't represented in the hearing. According to the
order that came out of the hearing, PwC wasn't in court for the proceeding. It was just Taylor and
Burnyeat. Taylor was acting for PwC in the hearing. Justice Burnyeat gave Taylor a judgment that
permitted PwC to liquidate substantial securities owned by the companies.
PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. had no qualms about using the order Taylor obtained. PwC quickly
deployed the order to sell assets netting about $130,000.00 cash in the corporate brokerage
accounts at BMO Nesbitt Burns. Two cheques with the proceeds of the assets liquidations were
then remitted by BMO Nesbitt Burns directly to the Vancouver, BC office of
PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. The cheques were made payable to PwC. This cash was wholly
owned by the companies in receivership but it was diverted into PwC's pocket. This activity
amounts to a massive payoff of someone else's dough to PwC by Robert W. Taylor. Justice
Burnyeat abetted Robert W. Taylor in the procurement of a bribe for PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc.
On April 4, 2003 I sent PwC a letter demanding they immediately cease all interference with the
companies. In response, on April 8, Taylor Veinotte Sullivan sent me a copy of a letter they had
sent to PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. Included in the letter was a draft the law firm had prepared of
this latest Burnyeat order allowing PwC to liquidate our assets. Taylor Veinotte Sullivan also
suggested PwC contact Crown Counsel Marie Louise Ahrens for information about me -- even
including her telephone number at her new position in downtown Vancouver. That same day, April
8, 2003, PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. began billing my businesses management fees in excess of
$11,000. Managing my companies entails depositing a rent cheque and depositing a mortgage
payment, once a month. That's it. Oh, you also get to watch the accumulation of dividends and
interest in the brokerage accounts. All the investments I purchased were long-term, safe holdings.
My family's property had been effectively seized - with the full cooperation of the government of
British Columbia.
And it later came to my attention that PwC wasn't duly appointed receiver manager by the
government of the innocent companies named as respondents in this matter.
PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. didn't sign their appointment order. As such, there is no lawful order
of the court signed and endorsed by PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. and/or by PwC's legal counsel
that duly appoints PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. as receiver manager in a legal capacity of my
family's innocent, privately-owned companies Alco Enterprises Ltd., Powell River Investments Ltd.
and Cedar Grove Holdings Inc.
I was knocked down but not out. Or maybe I was just still naively green enough to think that I
could navigate BC's judicial minefield. In July 2002 I took a deep breath, put the probation breach
fiasco behind me and began shopping for yet another lawyer willing to present the facts before a
BC Supreme Court judge so I could get my companies back. After calling a half dozen firms, on
July 12, 2002 I talked to a Vancouver lawyer called Nathan S. Ganapathi of Ganapathi & Company.
I liked his style so we met the next day at his Yaletown office. He came across as genuinely
interested in my case, intelligent, diligent, and, most importantly, he presented himself to me as
being connected. He said it would cost me an estimated $7,500 plus disbursements and taxes to
appear and argue the case before a judge. After having spent $32,000 on Ahrens' criminal
proceedings $7,500 seemed like chump change. I retained him. My mercenary hired, the next
order of business was to engage the enemy. Ganapathi contacted Veinotte who, not surprisingly,
balked at the notion of entering into any kind of dialogue. In a knee-jerk attempt at repelling me
Veinotte undertook a ramshackle assault of defensive measures. Knowing that a cross-examination
of my brain-damaged father on his bullshit affidavit was all that was required to expose fraud and
misrepresentation, Ganapathi requested my dad be made available for questioning. In a letter
dated August 12, 2002 Veinotte refused our request telling Ganapathi that my father would not be
made available without a court order and furthermore, because the time period for appeal had
expired, he and his client were out of luck to kill the Burnyeat Order. Then came the return
of Graham Phillips, on paper anyway. On September 26, 2002 Veinotte threatened to hit me with
something the lawyers call "taxation," that is, to compel me through court action to pay the legal
costs accrued in the acquisition of court orders. He began with the Patterson Order obtained by
Harrop Phillips Powell & Gray. The Patterson Order was granted on March 1, 2001 and now, 18
months later when I decide to open my mouth and start talking, Phillips figures it's time to send me
the bill. Phillips wants $5,339.92. Veinotte also threatens taxation of $5,589.47 for the Burnyeat
Order of January 28, 2002. Then Veinotte produced two illegible cheques he claimed I had written
against my company Alco Enterprises Ltd. after my release from jail. Claiming that I had written
the cheques for personal benefit, without any proof, Veinotte demands that I immediately come up
with $12,000, on top of the $10,929.39 taxation, and hand it over to him. This was Veinotte's
September 26, 2002 defensive onslaught. The tactic here is financial warfare -- the lawyers do
everything in their power to empty your coffers so it becomes financially impossible for you to
afford representation or, at the very least, to discourage you from opposing them. They whack you
with economic shock. Then on October 11, 2002 Veinotte served me with a notice of motion that
he was seeking to have a judge slap me with a contempt of court order for writing the Alco
Enterprises cheques in defiance of the Boyd Order. Veinotte was also on the horn to the
commercial crime unit of the RCMP and the Vancouver Police Department trying to have me
thrown back in the can. It smelt like panic.
Ganapathi wanted the matter heard in front of Justice Burnyeat. The rather lax standards he
employed in granting an order that involved very large sums of my companies' capital made me
question Burnyeat's competence as a judge, but Ganapathi insisted Burnyeat was the one to rectify
the situation. So while we waited five months for Burnyeat to return from summer recess we
prepared our affidavits and watched $1.2 million in corporate assets disappear from the bank
accounts. Finally, the date of Friday, November 1, 2002 is secured for a court engagement at which
Ganapathi intends to request that Burnyeat order Veinotte's firm Taylor Veinotte Sullivan be
removed as counsel on the grounds that they are in breach of the rules of court. It is at this point
that I am suddenly forced to question Ganapathi's ethics and loyalty to his client. Two days before
that crucial court date, on Wednesday, October 30, 2002, Ganapathi sends me an e-mail demanding
that I deliver a cheque for $10,000 to his office before the close of business the following day or he
is withdrawing as solicitor leaving me high and dry for Friday's court engagement. It was a classic
example of the bait and switch technique used by these parasites as they bleed you like leeches. I
paid the $10K. What the hell else was I supposed to do? I should have known that the $7,500
Ganapathi quoted to handle this mess was too good to be true. He ended up billing me $25,000.
On Friday, November 1, 2002 Ganapathi and I arrive at BC Supreme Court for a 9:30 a.m.
hearing. I finally get to see him in person, my arch nemesis, my personal Antichrist, the enforcer
for the Vancouver legal community who leads the charge in the abolition of my dreams and my
family's financial security. Carey D. Veinotte is an imposing, heavyset, bald man in his mid-thirties,
younger than I expected. He has heavy, sleepy eyelids and his eyes are sunk deep into his skull.
Veinotte obtained his law degree in 1991 from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He
was called to the Bar of BC in 1993 and worked for a time in the Vancouver offices of law firm
Miller Thomson LLP. Miller Thomson has offices across Canada as well as one foreign office - in
Washington, D.C. Miller Thomson does not have an office in Canada's capital, Ottawa, Ontario.
Claiming to fear for his safety, Veinotte demands that I be frisked for weapons and that a sheriff be
present in the courtroom at all times. Veinotte and two other lawyers are in attendance to defend
Veinotte's conduct. Because Veinotte had written an affidavit defending himself against my charge
of his failure to comply with court rules he is now forbidden from acting as counsel in the matter
but, as with Phillips and all the lawyers before him, Veinotte's law partner Robert W. Taylor
emerges to defend his associate and carry on the battle. Veinotte and Taylor worked together at
Miller Thomson LLP as well as at Walsh & Company. It's like facing an unstoppable army of
shambling, brain dead zombies. You eliminate one then another appears to take its place, regardless
of the logic or rationale of the situation. As Ganapathi prepares to put forth his argument for
disqualifying Taylor Veinotte Sullivan as solicitors, Burnyeat cuts him short, declaring that he has
no jurisdiction to disqualify lawyers from an action, rather this measure can only be undertaken by
The Law Society of British Columbia. Problem. Big problem. I had already reported Veinotte to
The Law Society and their response was that my concerns could only be dealt with in a court of
law. To add insult to injury, Burnyeat orders that I pay Taylor Veinotte Sullivan's costs for the
fifteen minutes we had spent in court that morning. He assesses the amount at $1,000. I bring
massive impropriety to the attention of the judge who presided over the matter and his response is
to fine me for my candour. For whatever reason, Burnyeat is steadfastly siding with my
adversaries. No one is willing to admit to making a mistake. I'm starting to get the picture here and
it ain't pretty. Here's how it works: Your money is stolen by an organized network of renegade
lawyers. You are deceived into believing you can get your money back but in order to do so first
you have to cough up a small fortune and then dress up in your best suit and head down to their
clubhouse and beg. I got the message. If your car was stolen and then recovered by the police you
would expect to have the vehicle returned to you, right? It doesn't work that way here. Of course
my disabled father was nowhere to be seen in all of this. The lawyers were not working for him,
they weren't even working with my sister anymore. They were defending themselves.
In addition to rendering a costs judgment against me, Justice Burnyeat also decided that my father,
my mother, my sister and I would be cross-examined on our affidavit testimony. However,
Ganapathi and Taylor defiantly refused to draw up the order and enter these extremely important
judgments at the BC Supreme Court. Instead Ganapathi quietly made the $1,000.00 payment to
Taylor Veinotte Sullivan from fees I'd paid into Ganapathi & Company in trust and the two lawyers
conspired to suppress the cross-examination orders.
Another hearing was scheduled for Thursday, November 7, 2002 at which we would attempt to
have the orders that removed me from my companies set aside. The afternoon before the hearing
Ganapathi e-mailed me saying that Taylor Veinotte Sullivan where looking for a compromise that
would avoid a trial. I wanted to nail the fuckers to the courtroom wall but Ganapathi wouldn't have
it. I think the tenacity of our adversaries was taking its toll; they had worn him down and he was
getting tired. It was just Ganapathi and me against a mob that included an ex-judge, among others.
Ganapathi and Taylor Veinotte Sullivan made a deal amongst themselves that would hand what
remained of the assets over to a receiver manager while a settlement was negotiated through a
mediator. Taylor Veinotte Sullivan insisted that PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. be appointed
receiver. The home office of PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. is in New York, USA.
Ganapathi requested that a smaller, independent, more economical firm be brought in to protect the
corporate assets. The question of receiver was put to Burnyeat the next morning in BC Supreme
Court. Again he sided with Taylor Veinotte Sullivan, thus PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. was
appointed receiver of the respondent companies Alco Enterprises Ltd., Powell River Investments
Ltd. and Cedar Grove Holdings Inc. With the assets tentatively secure, it was time to get out of
Vancouver's cash gorging quagmire. Fast. I knew everyone, including Ganapathi, was eyeing the
healthy pool of corporate capital (Ganapathi had suggested that all legal fees, including Taylor
Veinotte Sullivan's, be paid by my companies). I fired Ganapathi and pulled out. Now it was time
for Taylor Veinotte Sullivan to pay off the fence.
On April 1, 2003 Robert W. Taylor of Taylor Veinotte Sullivan appeared before Justice Burnyeat
again in an application by PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. Oddly, although the application was
brought by PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc., PwC wasn't represented in the hearing. According to the
order that came out of the hearing, PwC wasn't in court for the proceeding. It was just Taylor and
Burnyeat. Taylor was acting for PwC in the hearing. Justice Burnyeat gave Taylor a judgment that
permitted PwC to liquidate substantial securities owned by the companies.
PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. had no qualms about using the order Taylor obtained. PwC quickly
deployed the order to sell assets netting about $130,000.00 cash in the corporate brokerage
accounts at BMO Nesbitt Burns. Two cheques with the proceeds of the assets liquidations were
then remitted by BMO Nesbitt Burns directly to the Vancouver, BC office of
PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. The cheques were made payable to PwC. This cash was wholly
owned by the companies in receivership but it was diverted into PwC's pocket. This activity
amounts to a massive payoff of someone else's dough to PwC by Robert W. Taylor. Justice
Burnyeat abetted Robert W. Taylor in the procurement of a bribe for PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc.
On April 4, 2003 I sent PwC a letter demanding they immediately cease all interference with the
companies. In response, on April 8, Taylor Veinotte Sullivan sent me a copy of a letter they had
sent to PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. Included in the letter was a draft the law firm had prepared of
this latest Burnyeat order allowing PwC to liquidate our assets. Taylor Veinotte Sullivan also
suggested PwC contact Crown Counsel Marie Louise Ahrens for information about me -- even
including her telephone number at her new position in downtown Vancouver. That same day, April
8, 2003, PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. began billing my businesses management fees in excess of
$11,000. Managing my companies entails depositing a rent cheque and depositing a mortgage
payment, once a month. That's it. Oh, you also get to watch the accumulation of dividends and
interest in the brokerage accounts. All the investments I purchased were long-term, safe holdings.
My family's property had been effectively seized - with the full cooperation of the government of
British Columbia.
And it later came to my attention that PwC wasn't duly appointed receiver manager by the
government of the innocent companies named as respondents in this matter.
PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. didn't sign their appointment order. As such, there is no lawful order
of the court signed and endorsed by PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. and/or by PwC's legal counsel
that duly appoints PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. as receiver manager in a legal capacity of my
family's innocent, privately-owned companies Alco Enterprises Ltd., Powell River Investments Ltd.
and Cedar Grove Holdings Inc.
8 / 45