BU has dubbed this story; the one the Barbados media is scared to touch and that includes Patrick Hoyos’ Broad Street Journal who reported on this story in the early day. Even if we agree with some BU family members that this is a family squabble, the indignity which Barbados and many of its citizens have had to respond to should cause our local media to report on what has mushroomed to an international event. The fact that Peter Allard, the chairman and owner of Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary is involved is another reason for Barbadians to ask some questions. Allard we have learned has filed a case to a Canadian Body responsible for environmental matters citing that Barbados has reneged on certain environmental responsibilities
BU recognizes that the complexities of this case may not be palatable to some and we have tried on this particular blog to list what we hope are more reasonably sized nuggets of information to more easily process. BU has advocated ADR in the past but resignedly have accepted the time has now passed for what would have been a more sensible and less costly solution.
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In late 1998, Kingsland Estates Limited shareholder, Marjorie Knox, filed suit in the Barbados High Court against, inter alia, the other Kingsland shareholders (her octogenarian brothers and sisters and, where deceased, their heirs and executors). The action was funded and supported by Canadian citizen and Barbados resident Peter Andrew Allard, the chairman and proprietor of the Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary.
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Knox lost the case and by June 2005, all appeals had been exhausted, including Knox’s appeal to the Privy Council.
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In February 2007, a non-entity fraudulently purporting to be an Ontario-registered corporation named Nelson Barbados Investments Inc. (which we will call “Nelson Investments”) filed suit in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice against over 70 Defendants, including the “the Country of Barbados” Barbados’ present and former Prime Minister, now former Chief Justice Sir David Simmons, his brother Peter Simmons (former High Commissioner to London) and many Barbados Government agencies and organs, not to mention many private Bajans. And, of course, members of the Deane family, including Knox herself. Let us call it the “Ontario Action”.
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The action by Nelson Investments was quickly withdrawn and replaced by almost exactly the same action with the same Defendants, but this time the Plaintiff was a recently Ontario-incorporated entity of the eerily similar name of Nelson Barbados Group Limited (which we will call “Nelson Group”) of which the sole named officer was one Donald Robert Best, a former unsavoury and notorious deep cover internet piracy investigator with close ties to Allarco, Peter Allard’s family company, and to Nelson Investments and Nelson Group’s Canadian counsel, K. William McKenzie. It is noted that Allarco is under financial protection in Canada – and has been for some time.
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The relationship between Nelson Investments, Nelson Group, Donald Best and McKenzie is indeed strong, as they all have (or had until about September 2009) the same address – 40 Coldwater Street, Orillia, Ontario – an address, coincidentally, shared by McKenzie’s law firm, Crawford, McKenzie, McLean, Duncan and Anderson LLP.
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Most of the Defendants, including the Country of Barbados, filed a motion objecting to the jurisdiction of Ontario and claiming that Barbados was the only competent jurisdiction for the matter to be tried. The Defendants won the motion and the action was stayed. It is noted that Justice Bryan Shaughnessy took the view that the choice of Ontario was nothing more than forum-shopping in an attempt to go behind the Privy Council decision. This was later borne out by McKenzie’s own admission in Barbados to other counsel, in this case Mr Lawrence Hansen.
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Then, came the matter of costs and because of what the Defendants perceived as an abuse of legal process, they asked for some highly unusual remedies:
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Costs on a full indemnity basis (Canada, inexplicably, usually will only award partial indemnity, or about 40% of the costs that any plaintiff forces on the defendant or vice versa);
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Costs against McKenzie personally and against his law firm;
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Piercing the corporate veil of Nelson Group and costs against Donald Robert Best personally.
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However, as it appears from the cross-examination of McKenzie, Nelson Group and/or Donald Best may not have been McKenzie’s originating clients at all. Seems that Donald Best/Nelson Group is merely a front for guess who? Marjorie Knox and Peter Allard.
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It would certainly appear that Marjorie Knox has sued herself. And we now have to ask ourselves how far the complicity of Barbados Queens Council Alair Shepherd goes in what is, after all, a fraudulent and blatant attempt to mislead the courts of BOTH Canada and Barbados. Will Shepherd face the same repercussions as McKenzie?
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“But,” you may persist in saying, “is Marjorie Knox not a defendant herself?”. This has always looked suspicious and smelt badly. Why else would Marjorie Knox’s eldest daughter, Kathleen Davis, start a blog named the Keltruth Corp. and dedicate it to the advancement of the agenda of Nelson Group, Peter Allard and McKenzie and to the detriment of Barbados? And why else would Marjorie Knox’s son, John Knox, be the sole affiant on behalf of Nelson Group with affidavits in which he attempts to portray Barbados and Bajans as a savage and violent people, devoid of any legal or governmental infrastructure?
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Donald Best, summoned by court order for cross-examination on three occasions, refused to turn up from his hiding place (blaming BU for this and accusing BU of putting his life in danger) and was eventually sentenced to three months for contempt of court, as has been previously reported by BU. He is currently a fugitive from justice.
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These transcripts reveal a depth of conspiracy on the parts of Knox, Allard, Best and McKenzie that makes the allegations of conspiracy made by them through their front of Nelson Group, against Barbados, its executive and its citizens seem positively mundane by comparison.
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In this series, BU has already covered the propensity for hiding by Donald Best. Now, we learn of the “legal practices” of K. William McKenzie.
The motion for the millions of dollars in costs that Barbados and its fellow-defendants are out of pocket, started hearing February 22, 23 and 24, but had to be adjourned, because McKenzie’s counsel, Mr Shawn Dewart of the prestigious (and honourable) law firm of Sack Goldblatt Mitchell, retained by LawPro (the insurance arm of the Law Society of Upper Canada) asked for an adjournment in order to investigate whether he was obligated or not by reason of his professional ethics and obligations, to remove himself as the counsel for McKenzie. The adjournment was granted by Justice Shaughnessy upon consent of all parties.
We are advised that this is highly unusual mid-trial, and the best guess we can come up with is that Mr Dewart discovered that McKenzie may be guilty of fraud and, as his client is LawPro, he may have to report it to LawPro, thus negating and rendering void the terms of McKenzie’s LawPro insurance.
The transcripts of the cross-examination of McKenzie are attached, in imitation (but not flattery) of the publication by Keltruth of the transcripts of Sir David Simmons’ cross-examination – what is sauce for the goose…… The attention of the BU family is especially directed to the third and last transcript, particularly the cross-examination by Barbados’ counsel, Mr Lorne Silver, commencing at page numbered (top right hand therein) 340.
We also learn, in the process of the cross-examinations, that Allard’s GHNS spokesperson, Stuart Heaslet, either “bunks” in with Mummy in California or resides somewhere in the Mojave Desert with some woman or other and that he is, according to McKenzie, a “vagabond”. Nonetheless, Allard expects the government to open dialogue with GHNS between an elected MP and minister of government and an itinerant of no fixed abode. But there again, Allard and Knox have sued Barbados in Canada through a shell company headed by a man who, apparently, lives in a post office box – several post office boxes. So this is clearly not the stretch for them that it would be for us more staid folks.
Maybe Stuart Heaslet and Donald Best are one in the same. And their ability to move about Canada and the USA without, apparently, leaving traces so that the Canadian police cannot seem to arrest and jail Donald Best, says nothing for the effectiveness of USA Homeland Security and the RCMP. For if this former Ontario police officer (Donald Best) can elude arrest, the clear question has to be asked:
Are his fellow police officers covering for him, or is he going in and out of Canada and the USA on a false passport – or maybe more than one false passport?
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.