A lively discussion of the Quint housing project can be found on injusticebusters blog. It began in the archived October 6, 2004 and continues on the October 8 archive

. See also Slum landlords | Mayor Atchison | Chief Sabo | Brian Dueck |

Landlord charged: Grover accused of falsifying records at Ave. E home

Rod Nickel, The StarPhoenix, March 12, 2005

Landlord Jack Grover spent a night in custody after police charged him with falsifying smoke detector records the day after a house fire sent six people to hospital.

Jagdish Lal (Jack) Grover strode briskly past reporters following his first court appearance Friday.

In response to reporters' questions, he simply said, "No time, no time."

After Grover got into a car, one of Grover's two companions shoved a TV camera away.

"Shut up!" Grover, 64, barked at a reporter who demanded the name of his companion. The car sped away with Grover's companion thrusting his middle finger at reporters.

The landlord is charged with obstructing justice by trying to falsify smoke detector records. Grover has not entered a plea.

Six people were sent to hospital following the March 3 fire at 214 Ave. E North.

Staff Sgt. John Middleton said Grover was taken into custody Thursday afternoon after police asked him to come to the police station. Grover spent the night in either the Saskatoon Correctional Centre or the police station.

Reached at home, Grover said he was, "shouting Hallelujah, so much work to do," before hanging up.

Obstructing justice is an indictable offence carrying a prison term of as long as 10 years. Under Saskatoon's fire and protective services bylaw, all homeowners, including landlords, are required to test smoke detectors every three months, or annually in the case of electrically wired or tamper-proof detectors and record the results, said fire inspector Wayne Rodger. The type of smoke alarm in the Avenue E home could not immediately be confirmed.

Rodger said charges of falsifying smoke-detector records are uncommon, but Grover has been previously charged with the offence for a different property.

"Where smoke alarms don't work, you can have some pretty tragic results," Rodger said. "Every response I've ever gone to when the smoke alarm has gone off, typically the occupants are outside waiting for us to arrive."

When firefighters arrived at Avenue E, there was no sound of smoke alarms, he said.

Accurate smoke-detector records protect the landlord and prevent he-said, she-said exchanges in court, Rodger said.

In 2003, The StarPhoenix reported that Grover's properties had racked up a staggering 186 violations, improvement orders and convictions from fire inspectors and the courts in two years. Grover attributed his record to the fact that no one else owns so many inner-city properties in Saskatoon. At the time, he owned or managed 80 units.

Grover was released from custody until his next appearance March 28 on conditions including no contact with nine people -- the tenants of the house and their families. He is also not to visit the City Hospital intensive care unit or the pediatric intensive care unit at Royal University Hospital.

Since the fire, Grover has repeatedly phoned family members of the tenants, said Lloyd Gifford, whose son Curtis was staying in the house when the fire began. Grover also walked into the intensive care unit, demanding to see Curtis, and at other times phoned for updates on his condition, disguising his voice and calling himself Uncle Harry, Gifford said.

Contact with Grover has made an already stressful situation more difficult, Gifford said.

Curtis is in critical but stable condition. No update was available on the three children and their mother.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2005

Apartment projects boost city's affordable housing stock

Betty Ann Adam, The StarPhoenix, October 13, 2004

Three freshly renovated apartment buildings in Pleasant Hill were officially opened Tuesday as Affordable Housing Week began in Saskatoon.

Renovation of the once-shabby apartment blocks was accomplished through the co-operation of Metis and First Nations programs, the federal and provincial governments and the City of Saskatoon.

The Central Urban Metis Federation Inc. obtained $1.4 million from the Centenary Affordable Housing Program (CAHP) and $357,000 from the Residential Rehabilitation Assistance Program. The City of Saskatoon will provide up to $180,000 toward the CAHP and will provide tax abatements worth about $50,000.

The project also provided work experience for people on employment insurance and social assistance in programs organized by the Gabriel Dumont Institute, Metis Employment and Training Saskatchewan Inc., the Saskatoon Tribal Council and Career and Employment Services.

The Central Urban Metis Federation rents the 36 units to low- and middle-income Metis families, many of which are headed by single parents.

"These good quality homes and the Metis community's excellent work in the renovations are vital to individual and family health and are the starting point to independence and lasting participation in the social and economic life of the province," said Joanne Crofford, minister of community resources and employment, at the opening.

Affordable Housing Week was declared to draw attention to the critical need for safe, stable, appropriate and affordable housing in Saskatoon.

The number of Saskatoon families with incomes that fall below the low-income cutoff has decreased in recent years, but the depth of poverty of the poorest has fallen, said Brenda Wallace, executive director of the Saskatoon Housing Initiatives Partnership.

The number of Saskatoon families whose incomes fall $10,400 short of meeting basic needs is second only to Ottawa, Wallace said.

The problem is worsened by Saskatoon's rental rates, which have risen by 15 per cent in the last year, she said, noting when people must use 70 per cent of their family income for shelter, they have little left for food and other necessities.
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2004

Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell

Truth suppress'd, whether by courts or crooks, will find an avenue to be told. Sheila Steele, injusticebusters.com

If you hold the mouth of Truth, It will burst out its rib-cage. Somali proverb

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Publisher : Sheila Steele

Got something to say about this or any other stories on this site? Go to injusticebustersblog Participate!

injusticebusters court advice :

How to walk yourself through the justice system

 

Why you should dump your preliminary hearing (written July 1998 and still valid)

 

Sermonette: The Naked Truth -- (You will find links to many more sermonettes in the sidebar on this page

Another target of Dueck's malice: : Wilf Hathway

Our activism contributed greatly to the good vibes which happened around the civil trial.

Index to the stories on this website

This is not regularly updated so if you are looking for a particular story and you have a name or keyword, please use the site search engine(at the bottom of the page) which IS regularly updated

Index to Saskatoon Police stories

This is a pretty good scrapbook for the 1998-2002 period.

Inquiry into the malicious prosecution of David Milgaard untanling 36 years of Saskatchewan police and Crown misconduct: : Opening day 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |

Stephen Williams: Canadian writer subject to Stasi-like treatment by Canadian police

Terry Arnold: : Snitch a suicide?

RCMP scenario stings: Brian Hutchinson starts digging

Gary wells: Faulty eye-witness testimony

Tulia, Texas

Gilmer, Texas

Willie Upshaw

Wrongfully convicted in Canada

Foster Parent false accusations

Martensville

Don Smith obscenity trial: an obscene conviction

James Lockyer

Hurricane Carter

Johnny Cochran speaks up for Bill Sampson

Vopnis

Abdulai Mohamed

Nfld Defamation story:

Wanda Young

Racism in the Federal Civil Service

The Terrible Story behind the Atif Rafay and Sebastian Burns convictions

Trial set for June 15

We know part of this disclosure is a forged statement and perjured affidavit from a Winnipeg cop

The Crown is still fighting Fred Poirier -- and they are losing. Secret Commissions Case from Northern B.C.

 

 

2005: In the United States the proven wrongful convictions just keep coming at us!

 

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Brandon Morin:

Convicted in Oregon

of rapes which did not happen

This website has good information about Measure 11 -- Oregon's Mandatory Sentencing requirements which have been in place since 1994. In this case we see how the combination of a flawed grand jury system and prosecutors who seek not justice but convictions is a recipe for wrongful convictions.

 

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Canadians who have been wrongfully convicted because of improper investigations combined with zealous Crown

A round-up of wrongful convictions in Canada

Robert Baltovich

Michael Burns

Sebastian Burns

Rodney Cain

Wilbert Coffin (hanged, 1953)

Jason Dix

Jim Driskell

Jody Druken

Randy Druken

Hugues Duguay

Michel Dumont

Peter Frumusa

Walter Gillespie and Robert Mailman

Clayton Johnson

Yvonne Johnson

Herman Kaglik

Darren Koehn

Kulaveeringsam "Kulam" Karthiresu

Stephen Leadbeater

Donald Marshall

Chris McCullough

Michael McTaggart

Felix Michaud

David Milgaard

Guy Paul Morin

Shannon Murrin

Jamie Nelson

Greg Parsons

Benoit Proulx

Atif Rafay

Louise Reynolds

Thomas Sophonow

Gary Staples

Billy Taillefer

Steven Truscott

Joe Warren

Leon Walchuk

 

AIDWYC

Innocence Project (Canada)

Innocence Project (U.S.)

Northwest Law Center on Wrongful Convictions

 

Kirstin Lobato

Jeffrey Scott Hornoff

Willie Upshaw

Hurricane Carter

Guildford 4

Birmingham 6

Amirault

Houston

U.S. wrongful convictions: Exonerateed

Kirk Bloodsworth

Laurence Adams

Ludrate Burton

Stephen Cowans

Wilton Dedge

Albert Johnson

Kenneth Marsh

Dwayne McKinney

James Bernard Parker

Peter Reilly

Peter Rose

Sylvester Smith

Clifford St. Joseph

John Stoll

Marty Tankleff

Wilton Dedge

Ray Krone

 

Still working on it:

Dennis Deschaine

Dennis Perry

Tim Sandfort

 

 

Revitalizing the archives From 1998 until 2002, injusticebusters was in the throes of identity crisis. What was it? What were we doing? We grappled with editorial policy at the same time we were learning the nuts and bolts of building and posting a website. Once we had a secure, paid site I had full editorial control, although I talked regularly to Richard Klassen who was forced to move his family several times and did not always have access to the internet. Rick's pages: one | two We posted our earliest and later actions. Early versions of the site can be found on the Wayback Machine. I began following other threads to stories of police and prosecutorial misconduct and the site's character took on another facet: a newsclipping scrapbook where stories could live longer than they would in print form. I also began picking up other stories of wrongfully convicted people. It was an explosion. By 2003 there were over 700 pages. I also had contact with several other people (Don Smith, Leon Walchuk, Monique Turenne, the Vopnis) and kept these stories going. It was the story of the Ross children's treatment at the hands of the Saskatchewan government which grabbed the attention of The Fifth Estate. The civil claim (The $10M Lawsuit as we called it) was only mentioned briefly at the end of their show which aired in November, 2000. When Richard Klassen began to make progress in bringing his civil claim to court, the government and police defendants alleged he was breaking the rules of court by publishing discovery material on the internet. MacNeil clinic (the document which started it all) The Thompson Papers Carol Bunko-Ruys reports This claim was absolutely false. However, rather than risk being thrown out of his civil claim, Klassen undertook before Judge Mona Dovall to sever all ties with the website. The court fights: Les Perreaux report QB271 These pages have links which lead to other pages from that era. Now that some of the dust has settled, I have been going back through the material we had posted in the early days. In the spirit of keeping the scrapbook alive, I have been reformatting and placing links. The original material remains intact. I hope the information, which chronicles our struggle is useful to you. The identity crisis is over. We know who we are --Sheila Steele, March 28, 2005

 

Blogging

Blogging has been in the news. It is the new, trendy thing with 40,000 new blogs being created each day. I established a blog for this website last September and it is now "taking off." These are a few of the pages with ongoing discussions.

Tasering Mary Lutz

Saskatchewan Centenary

Quint Blog discussion

Rotten apples in the Saskatoon Police

Blogging for choice

Michael Cardamone witch hunt

Implement recommendations of public inquiries

Stealing from the poor

Vancouver's killer cops

Tisdale rapists appeal

Winnipeg police misdeeds

Milgaard Inquiry

Chief Sabo: can he be trusted?

The Old Boys' Club Must Go!

Vancouver activists

John Hudak: Falsely accused mountie

City of intolerance

Constable Larry Lockwood: Exciteable!

Eric Cline

This is a great way for like-minded people to communicate and share our views. It is easier than making a website and marginally more difficult than a forum.

People who want to contribute simply have to punch the "comment" link and they will be taken to a page with a box which allows them to write their comment, preview and post it. It takes a while for the comment to show up and some people get impatient and repost. That's fine, I trash the duplicate posts and no harm done.

Please, please give it a try. The internet is distinguished from other media in that it is really and truly interactive. Blogging makes it possible to express your viewpoint even if you don't have a computer. You can go to the library or a friend's place or an internet cafe. Once you've mastered the basics (and believe me, if I can do it, you can do it) you will be participating in one of the most democratic -- and potentially powerful -- media the world as we know it has ever seen.

Come on. Don't be shy. Join the Weblog World! -- Sheila Steele, March 20, 2005

Toronto Police paid out $30M in secretly resolved claims over last five years