A True Crime Story

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The Suspicious Deaths of Barry and Honey Sherman: suicide, murder, and insurance money

 The details of this story are based on all available public records at the time of writing. The specifics of the case are accurate; the speculation as to motive is pure conjecture based on the old adage:

“Follow the money.”

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 You be the judge.

On the morning of December 15, 2018, the bodies of Barry and Honey Sherman, wealthy owners of Apotex Pharmaceuticals, were found in their home at 50 Old Colony Road, Toronto, discovered by a real estate agent who had been trying to contact them.

Their deaths were shocking. The passing of such great philanthropists was mourned by family, business associates, and friends. The Toronto Police were called in to investigate and announced that the deaths were “suspicious” and the cause of death was “ligature neck compression” usually associated either with strangulation or hanging. Now the question became, was it a double suicide, or a murder suicide pact, or a double homicide? In the one photo broadcast briefly on television, the crime scene showed two bodies in white robes or coats hanging at the edge of their indoor lap pool posed in symbolic elegance like something out of a Dan Brown novel.

Autopsies were performed. Initial speculation of murder suicide was obtained by the press. The family did not think that reflected well on their parent’s legacy and so they stepped in to the crime scene. This is something that generally only the very wealthy can do. A poverty stricken family of a mentally troubled person who is from a visible minority does not have access to private autopsy doctors or private investigators. They have to go with the standard police investigation, conclusions and report.

If you are very wealthy, and there is a lot at stake in terms of an upper class family brand, inheritance fortunes, insurance money and corporate control, you can do these things. They had their own private autopsy done. No doubt that the owners and partners of Apotex had access to every pharmaceutical under the sun, so who knows what chemical mix could turn up in one or both of the bodies.

What if it turned out that the “murder victim” had been drugged into a total relaxation before the ligature compression was applied? What if a similar pharmaceutical mix was found to have been ingested later by the “suicide victim”?  What if the victims calmly waited side by the side at the edge of the pool until the drugs took effect and the weight of their sagging bodies against the ligatures took care of the strangulation part? If the blind bitch goddess of justice is truly impartial, these are the questions that should be probed by the Toronto Police and not by a purchased private autopsy report or a family financed private investigation. The perception of conflict of interest is tantamount to a conflict of interest, especially when billions of dollars are involved.

When an ongoing investigation does not immediately deem that the deaths are homicides, nor are suspects being sought, and police have stated that there is no public safety risk, it usually indicates that whatever happened at that crime scene is isolated to that crime scene. In this case, the home of Barry and Honey Sherman and the indoor lap pool at 50 Old Colony Road, a home that was up for sale for nearly 5 million dollars.

Besides tarnishing the honourable and philanthropic legacy of Barry and Honey Sherman, a police report of suicide or murder/suicide would slow down the settlement of the estate. It would definitely slow down any life insurance payouts, possibly even eliminate them. Unhappy with the police “suspicious deaths” label, the family hired private investigators to look into the deaths.

A little background: generally, in Canada, if a person commits suicide, insurance policies become null and void. If a person is murdered, the policy goes to the beneficiary. In the case of a double suicide, no insurance money. However, in the case of a murder/suicide, the money of the murdered victim goes to their beneficiary, but the suicide victim gets no payout.

Now, this is where being wealthy and being able to afford really, really good lawyers and a sympathetic judge are important. Who was the murderer and who the suicide victim? In a case where the victim has been stabbed to death and the murderer has a single gunshot wound through the top of the skull, the verdict is pretty clear. The person without a brain is most likely a suicide and the insurance payment goes to the murdered victim’s beneficiary. There are variations on a theme here, like when a murder/suicide pact note is found indicating that both parties wanted out. That nullifies any life insurance payments.

The simplest case of all is when the police determine that the victims were a double homicide. Insurance gets paid as soon as the investigation concludes. That is exactly the conclusion reached by the private investigators hired by the Sherman family. That report was released to the Toronto Daily Star on Friday, January 19. 2018. It proposes that proposes Barry and Honey Sherman were victims of a double homicide. The family purchased private report now contends that that Shermans were found kneeling at the edge of the pool with their hands bound. Insurance problem almost solved.

Almost. But given that this contradicts the Toronto Police report, and that no suspects are being sought and that no public safety warning has been issued by the police, enter really, really good lawyers and judges to settle the dispute. No pressure, but there are millions of dollars and 1% reputations riding on the outcome.

Crime and Punishment in Toronto 2018 … the story has yet to be concluded, but you can write your own conclusions and see how they compare to the next chapter.

Wait for the public autopsy, compare it to the private autopsy and then write one ending from the official police perspective, and one from the Private Investigators hired by the Sherman family. Write one from a Globe & Mail perspective, and one from a Toronto Star perspective. Maybe even one from a Toronto Sun perspective. You be the judge.

And then write the screenplay. It will be riveting.

 

Truth, Justice and Responsible Communication

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You be the judge. Here is a hypothetical scenario to test your comprehension skills. And, at the end of this fake news show, like The Donald, you get to say, “You’re hired,” or “You’re FIRED!”

Here we go:  Principal A holds a local parent information night on the same night that the School Board is holding a board-wide meeting on Safe Sex Education. A colleague, Principal B from another area, attends the local meeting hosted by Principal A rather than the Board-wide presentation. Both Principals later claimed that they knew everything there was to teach about Safe Sex.

A variety of local and board wide information is presented at Principal A’s meeting which is attended by a very small group of parents.

The next day, social media is aflame with reports that the School Board is squandering funds to provide public bus transportation for students from outside the area to a local private school. Parents write that they are “very disappointed” that the Director is spending thousands of their local dollars to fund this private transportation for spoiled, ethnically diverse rich kids.

Worse than that, after years of trying to get a new soccer field for the students, the parents have discovered that the Board is dragging their feet on an arrangement with a local resident to have the new soccer field extended onto her property.

Now, although the parents who attended the meeting the night before claim they heard this information being presented and  discussed, and although the parents put out their complaints on social media, and although the local press picked up the story from social media and ran with it, it turns out that none of it was true.

There was never any public school funded transportation to the local private school. Period. The soccer field deal with the local neighbour had to be settled by the Ministry of Education and not the local school board. Period. Although both Principals in attendance could have clarified this at the meeting, they apparently did not, leaving parents so confused and misinformed that they vented their falsely aroused frustrations on the school board Director.

Now, you might be concerned that if information this simple can get screwed up so badly, what about the nuances of world history, quadratic equations, Shakespearean plays, and Safe Sex Education. Yes, you might be very concerned, and so was the Director of Education. The Director, acting responsibly, asked the Supervisory Officer to look into the situation. Unlike teachers, Principals are not protected by a Union – they can get fired by Supervisory Officers for not doing their jobs properly.

Further research revealed that this was not the first time that Principal B had been called up on the carpet, in fact twice before for unprofessional behaviour. As well, not the first time that Principal A had been associated with communicating misinformation like, “There’s a bomb in the school – we’re all going to die!” (There was no bomb – a primary student merely had explosive flatulence.)

In the end, a partial apology and clarification was made by Principal A, a histrionic defense of innocence was performed by Principal B, and the Supervisory Officer carried out no further disciplinary action on either one. It is not clear at the time of going to print if the Principals have made their apologies to the Director of Education or the parents for the embarrassment and confusion caused by their lack of clarity at a public meeting. Nor is it clear why Principal A called a meeting on the same night as an important Board-wide public information meeting, or why Principal B was even in attendance at Principal A’s meeting.

Now, let us pretend that your children are students in one of those schools led by Principal A and Principal B. You will get to decide if the Principals return to your schools or not. Choose carefully because your children’s future depends on a thoughtful and informed decision. You can decide to keep one or both Principals employed by the Board in the same or other schools, or you can reassign one or both of them for the next school year. To a galaxy far, far away ….

What’s it going to be … hired or FIRED? You be the judge.

***

Skid Crease, Caledon

 

 

A Council Divided

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 Original shorter version written for Just Sayin’ Caledon

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“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln spoke those words in 1858 at the Illinois State Capital in Springfield after he had accepted the Illinois Republican Party’s nomination as the state’s U.S. Senator. Those words ring just as true today, and they apply as equally to governments great and small as they do to citizen movements, and to family clans, and to canoe trips.

 Picture a canot du maître in historic times with nine paddlers heading down the swollen Humber River, most of whom are paddling hard in one direction, a few  paddling in another, and one perennial lily-dipper on board. Not only is the forward progress slowed but the course becomes an erratic zig-zag despite the best efforts of the avant standing in the bow and the ­gouvernail in the stern, both trying to steer a true course.

Their route and the goods in their trade canoe have been selected by a talented team of mapmakers, clerks, accountants, and artisans, each a professional in their own right, and highly valued by the Company. They want to get those goods to markets quickly and efficiently.

Ask yourselves how successful those fur trade entrepreneurs would have been if those trade goods had not reached their outposts in the northwest of Canada or the trading posts on the Bay, or if the returning bales of beaver pelts had not reached the chapeau fashionistas of Europe. Which is why you need all the paddlers to be sharing the same vision – a successful journey for their employers, a journey most successful when all the paddlers are pulling in the same direction.

Now, apply this analogy to our Caledon Municipal Council where one of the members recently remarked that they were “very divided.” The paddlers are our Mayor, Area Councillors and Regional Councillors, the avant, the bow steering paddler, is our Town Clerk and the gouvernail, the stern steering paddler, is our CEO. The team backing them are our Town Staff, and the employer is the taxpayer, a minority of whom get off their couches to vote every four years. An even smaller minority of whom bitch and complain about every paddle stroke taken and every decision that the team makes.

Some of the “paddlers” are beginning to signal their intentions to return for another voyage. Others are getting ready to move on to other ventures. And the selection of the nine newly hired voyageurs will be decided by the good townsfolk. However, their decision this season must be to select a very competent crew for a four-year journey into the unknown.

On this voyage the canoe will travel into the uncharted waters of the 2018 to 2022 years, years of sweeping technological innovations, complex population growth, and social diversity challenges.  It will be as challenging as it was for our First Peoples when the European farmers arrived in Caledon in the early 1800’s.

As challenging as when their fur trade rivers were harnessed by grist mills and saw mills. As challenging as when their forests teeming with country foods were razed for farms. As challenging as when their spirituality and culture were almost destroyed by missionary zeal, colonial arrogance, smallpox, and broken treaties. And as challenging for us now as we face nuclear button insults, waves of environmental refugees, and the unpredictability of accelerating climate change.

Given the scope of those challenges, the new crew of paddlers must have the qualities of endurance and strength of character. They must have a skill set that will help them guide our canoe through turbulent waters as we draw our own map into the future. They must possess the qualities of an adaptive mind: curiosity, creativity, initiative, multi-discipline thinking, and empathy. These are the skills that will take them beyond being simply paddling machines in a canoe. These are the skills that make them, and us, truly human.

Hindsight gives us the wisdom of seeing what we should have done a little differently too late. Like, “Well, in hindsight, maybe we shouldn’t have built our downtown core in a river valley floodplain.” As 500-year storm insurance guidelines rewrite our town plans, we begin to realize the 10,000-year wisdom of the elders who built their villages on the high ground. Wisdom and foresight. Something we need to use in selecting our next paddlers.

We have seen the patterns in the paddling styles of our current crew. We need to take a very careful look at those who are signing on again because we can’t afford any lily-dippers or divisive contrarians who might sabotage the venture. Great people make a great team. It’s going to be a long and challenging journey – let’s pick the paddlers who will take us through safely.

A Council divided may fall, but a canoe united will carry our Town on a phenomenal journey into the future.

 

 

 

Skid Crease, Caledon

 

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* images from Heritage Canada

 

 

 

Fire and Fury in Journalism

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The recent tsunami of attention devoted to author Michael Wolff’s exposé “Fire and Fury” has sparked a debate on the “truthiness” of his journalism.

However, the book was never intended to be a factual news report; Wolff clarifies in his opening that the novel is his perception and synthesis of the interviews and events that took place during his “blue badge” days at the White House. Therefore, readers should be expecting something closer to a lengthy editorial essay, a style of journalism that permits writers to communicate the truth as they interpret it.

In journalism, there is a great deal of difference between a news report (inform) and an editorial (inform and persuade) and a political satire essay (inform, persuade, and entertain). Editorials are essentially short essays meant to influence public opinion, promote critical thinking, and sometimes cause people to take action on an issue. In essence, an editorial is an opinionated news story.

Fire and Fury, is simply a novel-length essay written from Wolff’s personal point of view. It contains learned arguments, observations of daily life in the White House, recollections of events and interviews, and reflections of the author. Some may argue that it is a political manifesto largely spewed from the mouth of a now apologetic Steve Bannon. However, It is not, nor has it ever claimed to be, a factual news report.

Let us create a hypothetical scenario to make these differences in journalism easier to understand. A journalist covering the political beat overhears a controversial political leader accept a family vacation offer to the private island of a wealthy junk food magnate. The wordsmith in question is aware that approval for a natural sugar substitute to replace the artificial one currently causing explosive runs in their sugar-free Gummi Beavers is up for review by the Ministry of Bowel Safety (the Ministry of BS). The writer is faced with a dilemma. Besides having to decide if she is going to write a news report or an editorial on this scoop, she is also the only outside witness to this apparent lobbying. Should this  be reported to the Ethics Commissioner for investigation?

The answer to that question is an immediate “YES.” As a citizen you are never off duty; as a writer, you can check your pen at the door. That decided, she writes two versions of her story.

First, the News Report: “On December 21, 2017, the Premier of Duffedon took advantage of the government’s winter break, and accepted a vacation invitation from candy magnate Lycasin Maltitol. The Premier and his family will be staying as guests at Mr. Maltitol’s Candyleaf Plantation on the island of  Haribo off the coast of Brazil. When asked about the choice of vacation destination, the Premier noted that he and Mr. Maltitol had been friends for years.”

That’s it. When? 2012/12/21. Who? The Duffedon Premier, his family, and Mr. Maltitol; What? A family vacation. Where? Mr. Maltitol’s Candyleaf Plantation on the island of Haribo. Why? Opportunity to viisit with a family friend.

Now, the Editorial (with just a touch of political satire): “While most of us were shoveling snow and recovering from frostbite, our embattled Premier escaped to the sunny Island of Haribo off the coast of Brazil. Our editorial staff find this difficult to accept. Is it fair that some entitled Duffedonians get an invite to the tropics from rich corporate friends while the 99% are shivering in the cold dark days of December coping with high electricity prices? Yes, on December 21, fittingly the shortest day and longest, darkest night of the year, the Premier and his family jetted off to Candyleaf, Mr. Maltitol’s Stevia rebaudiana plantation.

 It should be noted that stevia, a sugar substitute, is the replacement recommended by the Ministry of Bowel Safety. The health catastrophe caused by the artificial “sour gas” sweetener in our famous Duffedonian sugar free Gummi Beavers had caused a collapse in the global market, a market second only to our manure exports. The government and particularly the Ministry of BS is under a great deal of pressure to reverse this economic Armageddon. Whoever gets the sweetener contract stands to make millions of our devalued dollars.

 The government claims that it has been open and fair in accepting all bids on the sweetener replacement contract. However, Opposition parties are calling foul, claiming that the trip is directly connected to the upcoming bill in the House recommending stevia as the replacement sugar substitute in Gummi Beavers. The Ministry of BS claims that stevia was simply the healthiest choice for Duffedonian bowels. The Ethics Commissioner, alerted by our timely news reporting, has promised to look into this matter.

 Is it not time that Duffedonian’s deserve honesty and transparency and clarity in our governance? Is it too much for hard working, tax-paying, Gummi Beaver consuming Duffedonians to expect a straight answer to a simple question? We think not! We call for the Minister of BS to resign and keep the government out of our junk food choices!  The Editor

There you have it – an editorial can rant and rave a little as long as it doesn’t cross the libel line. It can appear to be intelligent, but has to be careful of falling prey to the two parts of the Rex Murphy Syndrome. Part One is using so many big words that your audience is bedazzled by your eloquence but really has no idea what you are saying. Part Two is being caught getting paid on the side by individuals and groups seeking to influence the tone of the news.

What if we discovered that our hypothetical Editor works for a publishing group linked to influential corporations, linked to influential fundraisers, linked to whatever political party is in office. As CBC noted, “When journalists get paid to speak to or on behalf of powerful advocacy groups, it is hard to argue that this does not lead to a perception of conflict of interest.”

Fire and Fury in journalism, the way I see it.

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Skid Crease, Caledon

2018, the UN International Year of … Our Choice

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Written for the King Sentinel. Thursday, January 11th edition

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For the first time in recent history, the United Nations has not made a specific designation for the year 2018.  In fact, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a statement calling for global unity to overcome growing challenges:

“On New Year’s Day 2018 I am not issuing an appeal, I am issuing an alert – a red alert for our world. As we begin 2018, I call for unity. We can settle conflicts, overcome hatred and defend shared values. But we can only do that together.”

While the UN has already gone ahead and declared 2019 to be the International Year of Indigenous Languages, for which we say, Miigwech, it appears that the designation for 2018 is left up to us. To those who seize the initiative go the spoils, so let us step up and declare 2018 to be the International Year of Environmental Literacy.

Readers should be reminded that we previously defined “environment” as being “everything that surrounds us, everything with which we interact, everything that we are – in short, everything.” Environmental literacy, therefore, is our ability to move through the stages of awareness, knowledge, and critical thinking about “everything” to wisely put our values into action. This becomes particularly challenging in an era of “truthful hyperbole”, “fake news”, and a global leadership that boasts, “My nuclear button is bigger than your nuclear button!”  Challenging, but even more necessary than ever.

Our 2018 is a world of extremes where one part of our home planet is experiencing Arctic weather bombs, hurricane force winds and historic flooding, while another part is experiencing heat waves and drought. One part of our world is giving the richest corporations historic tax breaks while another part has left 5 million people in urgent need with a hundred thousand on the edge of starvation. While the global population growth is predicted to slow as fertility rates drop, we are at the same time predicting close to 50,000 new births in Rohingya Muslim refugee camps – that’s the population of King Township and Bolton combined – refugee camps rife with cholera and dysentery.

It is hard for us to comprehend the realities of accelerating global climate change and a steadily warming planet when we are shoveling snow. To put that into perspective, my wife and dog and I went hiking yesterday in the Happy Valley Nature Reserve where the wind chill temperature dropped to under -25ºC while the temperatures in Sydney Australia soared to over 45ºC. A temperature differential of 70ºC makes it even difficult to comprehend the realities of daily weather.

It is difficult for us to understand the cries for water, food and safety from those who have none when we are putting out our excess once a week in garbage bins, blue boxes and municipal composters. It is mind-boggling for those of us who believe in a just society to witness the rise in xenophobia and populist misogynistic nationalism in democratically elected governments.

The only cure for a world suffering from these extremes is for those who espouse positive, inclusive values to stand up and be counted, to speak up for those whose voice has been devalued, to offer solace to those who have none. Equally important is for us to use our democratic rights, while we still have them, to elect literate well-informed, respectful candidates to public office so that they make intelligent decisions on our behalf. And that requires us to be literate and well-informed citizens.

Our children tell us that they want to be the change, a change for the better. They remind us that we should be able to tell them that everything is going to be OK, that we are taking good care of them and their world, and that whether they live in King or Caledon or Syria their future will be bright.

But our children aren’t stupid. As young environmentalist Severn Suzuki reminded us at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro 25 years ago: “My dad always says, ‘You are what you do, not what you say.’ Well, what you do makes me cry at night. You grown-ups say you love us. But I challenge you, please, make your actions reflect your words.”

Perhaps then there is only one resolution to make for this New Year of 2018.

To finally accept that challenge, and to be the best we say we can be. Perhaps it is not so much a resolution, but a revolution and an evolution to environmental literacy. To a higher ground from where we begin to comprehend the incredible interconnectedness of our planet and the consequences of our actions. Considering the recent red alert from the United Nations Secretary-General and the remembered plea of a child, it is clear that the time has come for people of goodwill to defend their world together.

As the old biblical adage reminds us: As we sow, so shall we reap.  Here’s hoping the 2018 harvest is a good one.

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Skid Crease, Caledon