CANADIAN BUSINESSMAN and Barbados resident Bob Verdun’s attempts to stop his house arrest in Canada have failed so far.
And unless he launches another round of appeals, he will have to serve the next seven months under house arrest for contempt of court.
Verdun, 64, who has been pushing a condominium project in Barbados since he arrived here in 1993, had been fighting the court ruling, claiming that he needed to take his common-law wife to Barbados during the winter for medical reasons.
Before being sentenced to seven months of house arrest last month, Verdun asked Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Goldstein to allow him and his common-law wife to spend the winter in Barbados.
The judge said Verdun’s request showed “breathtaking gall” and ordered him to immediately begin serving the sentence at his Kitchener, South Ontario home.
In 2011 Verdun was ordered to pay prominent Canadian businessman Robert Astley the equivalent of $1.60 million in damages following a defamation case brought by Astley.
Verdun has not made the payment yet but last year he was convicted of contempt of court for breaking an order to not communicate with anyone about Astley. He was convicted of contempt of court again when he refused to return from Europe to finish serving a house arrest sentence on his first contempt conviction. He received seven months of house arrest for the second contempt conviction.
No suspension
In his last court appearance, the former publisher of the Elmira Independent sought a suspension of the house-arrest sentence he got for contempt of court, but the request was dismissed by Justice Mary Lou Benotto in a Toronto courtroom on December 30.
The judge ruled that house arrest would not cause Verdun irreparable harm.
“This is not an appropriate case for a stay,” lawyer Brian Radnoff said in his submissions to the court. He added: “His only goal is to delay his house arrest so he can winter in Barbados.”
Radnoff represented Astley, the former executive of Clarica whom Verdun was found guilty of defaming.
According to The Record, Radnoff also took issue with Verdun’s claim that his common-law wife Nuala Freund would suffer harm if the sentence was not stayed.
“Freund, who has back problems, asserts that she needs to take a lengthy flight to Barbados because she requires the ‘buoyancy of sea water’ and there is no place in Kitchener where she can find sea water,” he said.
“Freund’s evidence is incorrect. There are salt water pools available to her in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. One would think that, for a person with the physical limitations Ms Freund asserts she has, swimming in a pool would be significantly safer than swimming in the ocean.”
Radnoff said it was “inherently improbable” that she needed to winter in Barbados.
“If she needs medical assistance only offered in Barbados or to swim in salt water, these would be year-round concerns and not simply apply in winter. Further, it seems extremely odd that someone with her physical conditions would prefer a long plane flight over seeking medical attention where she lives or in Toronto, where there is no shortage of quality medical care,” the lawyer contended. (GE)
