TOURISM: Highway 16/97 centre set to close A3 Friday, April 20, 2012 Croatian conductor coming to the PGSO A15
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Four face kidnap charges DeLynda Pilon
newsroom@pgfreepress.com
Teresa MA LLA M/F re e Pre s s
One of the highlights of Monday’s Johnny Reid concert at CN Centre – the country rock superstar invites a youngster on stage to sing (and clap) along with band members. The sold-out concert attracted 4,500 fans.
City legal threat irks taxpayer DeLynda Pilon
newsroom@pgfreepress.com
A city resident involved in a case pending with the City of Prince George went public with his concerns after he filed a complaint against senior management at the city, resulting in a threat of legal action against him. Laurie MacIntosh says the city is at fault for a blocked culvert that caused flooding on his property and damaged his home, and he wants them to pay for the repairs. His complaint spurred an investigation by the city, which concluded the city was not the cause of the problem. During the municipal election, MacIntosh set up a website, challenging contenders for mayor and council positions to look at the evidence he’d amassed and state how they would deal with the issue. The problem remained unresolved, and with a court case pending in July, he wanted to gather documentation from the city regarding the issue, but says he met with strong resistance. “During the election I was going through the process of gathering documents for the legal proceedings. The city would not give them to me,” he said. In particular, he wanted a copy of everything pertaining to the investigation they conducted into his complaint.
Frustrated over what he felt was stone-walling on the city’s part, MacIntosh sent a four-page cover letter along with a 41-page document to the mayor’s office, complaining about the way administration handled the issue. In return, he got a letter from another lawyer, this one out of Vancouver. The letter, he said, distorted every action he’d taken. MacIntosh sent a letter back, debunking the information within the letter he received. “They said ‘our position hasn’t changed’. They said if you go public with this, we’ll sue you,” he said. “That’s when I knew it wasn’t about whether or not I was right or wrong. They know I can’t compete with a whole bunch more legal action.” MacIntosh pointed out the lawyer from Vancouver is the third who has been involved in the process by the city. The first is the city lawyer and the second will deal with the upcoming litigation. MacIntosh contacted the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, who responded the same day, asking for copies of the complaint and subsequent correspondence. Two weeks later they called him and said they were deeply concerned about the situation. “They said they were deeply concerned about silencing complaints, particularly a government.”
Doing so, he was told, is very unusual, except in extreme circumstances. “I don’t think my complaint about how the city handled documents was extreme,” he said. “Not giving investigation results in a timely fashion is not open or honest, and it deprives citizens of the right to see the information.” Robert Holmes, president of the BCCLA, responded with a letter to the Vancouver counsel involved. “The BC Civil Liberties Association is deeply concerned by the strategic use of the threat of defamation lawsuits by government against their citizens.” He went on to say “such lawsuits are tantamount to an attack on a person’s fundamental well being.” Holmes’s letter also provided numerous examples of case law demonstrating the limited capacity to which a government has to bring defamation action against citizens. To date, the city has not responded to the letter. “In my opinion it was a scare tactic. Maybe I’m wrong about that and maybe they will come after me with legal action,” he said. “But should I cower in a corner and hide from these guys? Is that what you do in a free and democratic society?” By press time, the city did not respond to the Free Press for comment on the issue.
When a press release said all four suspects involved in a kidnapping, reported to police on April 15, were known to police, they weren’t exaggerating, especially about one of them. Two of the four men, Michael Andrew Joseph Fitzgerald, 32, and Craig Anthony Niedermayer, 35, the first arrested at the Ferndale area residence where the victim was held, the other the next day, have been charged with kidnapping along with two brothers, Francois, 24, (also known as Frankie) and Dillan Meerholz, 22, who remained at large until they turned themselves in at the RCMP station at 11:30 p.m. April 17. As the investigation continues, more charges are anticipated. The South African-born elder Meerholz brother was out on bail in Prince George early last year when he was arrested by the Canada Border Services Agency on an outstanding deportation order. Frankie and Dillan immigrated to Canada in 1999 when Frankie was 12. Slated to live with relatives, Frankie wound up in the foster care system. In November of 2008, after amassing a variety of criminal convictions, he was ordered deported, but the federal government stayed the conviction for 18 months, giving the young man a second chance, with conditions, one of which included keeping clean of any more brushes with the law. The opportunity was squandered when Meerholz garnered more convictions, and the deportation order was reinstated. According to police, Meerholz was a member of the Game Tight Soldiers and wore the first piece of a three-part patch Renegade initiates must earn. Dillan also has a record, including assault, and has been linked with the Game Tight Soldiers, say police. Cpl. Craig Douglass, Prince George RCMP media liaison, said he can’t really say if either Meerholz brother is still linked with these gangs. “But he (Frankie) is associated with organized crime. This incident was drug-related and certainly criminal in nature,” he said. A search of the Ferndale property where the victim was held turned up a small grow op as well as stolen property. In a press release, police say the offences are drug-related and targeted. The adult male victim, who police believe was held for several days, was taken by ambulance to the hospital to be treated for serious but non-life threatening injuries.