Winnipeg Free Press Newspaper Archives Jul 4 2015, Page 4

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 4, 2015, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A4 A 4 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, SATURDAY, JULY 4, 2015 TOP NEWS winnipegfreepress. com EQUIPMENT & TRUCKS Fiat Allis model FL110B crawler w/ loader ( runs)* 1973 Grove model TM180 60ft. Crane truck w/ extended boom ( runs Good)* 1991 Sokal tri- axle flat deck trailer ( nice shape)* Case model 380E tractor backhoe w/ loader* Grove scissor lift model SM42RT, gas* 1990 Toyota Toyoace 4x4, right hand drive* Hough 1/ 2 yard loader ( not running)* 1986 Mitsubishi Canter w/ Super Z 250* 1970 Mack concrete truck w/ mixer, tandem model 2793* 1990 GMC fire truck cube van w/ diesel generator* 1980 Drake car hauler trailer single axle* 1968 Western Star highway tractor* Mobile post pounder & concrete breaker* 2- International TD6 crawlers ( not running)* water Westtank tanker 3- compartments, tandem* FMC 4- wheel alignment machine w/ turntables* Hosch 10 ft. bed metal lathe* TERMS: Cash, Visa, Mastercard or Debit Paid in Full Same Day of Sale 5% Buyers Fee “ SUBJECT TO ADDITIONS & DELETIONS” “ Everything Sold As Is, Where Is,” with no warranties implied or expressed All vehicles are sold as is, where is with No Guarantee as to the Year or Condition. Year & Serial Number are only a guideline. They’re Not Necessarily always Correct KAYE’S AUCTIONS ( 204) 668- 0183 ( WPG.) www. kayesauctions. com UNRESERVED AUCTION SALE AT 2208 Springfield Road Saturday, July 11th at 11: 00 AM ( Viewing after 9: 00 AM Same Day of Sale Only) Having received instructions from Petersen King Barristers and Solicitors , we will sell the following: FREE CONSULTATION Financing Available ZELCER DENTURE CLINICS HARTLEY ZELCER D. D., B. Sc. Denturist www. zelcerdentures. com 30 YEARS EXPERIENCE Winnipeg 1570 MAIN STREET • 204 .. 586 .. 3725 Between Jefferson & Inkster Selkirk 315 MAIN STREET 204 .. 482 .. 4235 FOR THAT YOUTHFUL NATURAL SMILE Anxiety? Help is just a phone call away. 204- 925- 0600 1( 800) 805- 8885 www. adam. mb. ca AN incident similar to Friday’s explosion occurred four decades ago at Winnipeg’s Law Courts building. Charles Gilraine, the chief clerk of the county court, lost his left hand when a dynamite- rigged electric clock exploded on Sept. 26, 1974, according to Free Press files. A jury found John Joseph Rogers guilty of two counts of attempted murder. Rogers had mailed the homemade explosive to the courthouse. Gilraine was not the target. It was addressed to James Symons, a clerk in the small- claims court, with whom Rogers had a dispute for dismissing a claim. “ I put on my glasses and plugged in the clock,” Gilraine testified in 1975, saying it felt as if white discs had been placed over his eyes. “ I was crouched down in a squat position. The thing I recall — I thought I was blind.” “ I blinked my eyes a few times and I could see... finally. I thought if I could stand I could walk, and if I could walk I’d better get out of there.” A police officer was in the hallway when he heard the explosion. Const. Don Pilcher saw smoke coming from under the county court door and heard screams. Pilcher used a necktie as a tourniquet on Gilraine’s arm, stopped a car outside the courthouse and had the driver rush them to Misericordia Hospital. THOSE who know Maria Mitousis well say they can’t believe anyone would want to deliberately hurt her. “ Maria is an efficient lawyer who does not spend a lot of time on the useless details of a case. She does not strike me as the type of lawyer who makes enemies,” one of her clients told the Free Press Friday. He requested his name not be published because of safety concerns. “ She is a tough, brilliant and amazing lawyer,” said one of her colleagues, who also requested anonymity for the same reasons. Mitousis was called to the bar in 2006. Her website biography states she specializes in “ working with clients who are looking for practical solutions to resolve or prevent family law disputes. Her practice focuses on negotiating settlements and drafting family law agreements.” Mitousis is active in Winnipeg’s Greek community, particularly at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church. Her volunteer activities include reading to children in West Broadway as part of a group called Lawyers for Literacy. She was educated at St. Mary’s Academy, the University of Manitoba and Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. Injured lawyer ‘ tough, brilliant’ Clerk lost hand in 1974 bombing I T was two weeks ago, on a Saturday morning at the St. Norbert Frmers’ Market, when my wife, Athina, and I chanced to meet Barry Gorlick and Maria Mitousis. I knew Barry casually. But this was the first time since his divorce several years earlier I had seen the former president of the Canadian Bar Association with his new partner in life — he being 60, she 35, and both having law, specifically the speciality of divorce law, in common. Athina and Maria also have Greek ancestry in common, so they chatted briefly about that troubled country. “ She was buying greens for her grandmother,” Athina would recall later. Barry, meanwhile, wanted to talk about a recent column on Winnipeg Second World War hero Andrew Mynarski, where he had noticed a reference to a December 1965 Readers Digest story about Mynarski Barry said his mother had given him to read as a boy. I said I had a copy he could have. Less than a week later, he first texted and then arrived on foot at my house in a neighbourhood far from his own to pick up the Reader’s Digest . I invited him in and offered to fill his water bottle. We ended up in my living room, him on the couch, me unconsciously assuming the therapist’s position in a winged chair. And we talked. Mostly about him; his upbringing as the son of working- class Romanian immigrants, his family, his divorce. And that he had in fact just come from a visit to his therapist. What I didn’t think to ask him — maybe because it felt too intrusive — was about his work situation. The answer to the unasked question arrived just more than a week later on the front page of Friday’s Free Press : “ Veteran city lawyer disbarred.” Gorlick had admitted to 15 counts of misconduct: a tangled and bewildering knot of bizarrely botched and ignored divorce files, the misappropriation of trust funds and all the fantastic stories he told to cover the chaos. It read to me like a man whose personal and professional life weren’t the only things that had gradually unravelled over a 20- year period. So had his grasp on reality and what was really important in life. It was 9 a. m. Friday when I texted him. “ Barry, I just read the paper. I’m sorry. Puts our afternoon together in a deeper context...” Then I asked if he wanted to say anything in the next day’s paper. I closed with this thought. “ I just hope you’re OK in the moment and the long term.” In retrospect, those words would sound chillingly ironic. As would Barry’s own closing words in a text that arrived more than an hour later, at 10: 20 a. m. “ Thank you for the thoughtful and supportive comments, Gordon. I have been working hard these past many months, assisted by our little borough’s best and brightest health- care givers, to address the issues that impaired my judgment so mightily. My closest and dearest colleagues and friends have also been magnificent. But then no surprise there — we’re all Winnipeggers, right?” He ended with this. “ So I am and will continue to be OK. I am quite certain of that.” Barry didn’t know then about the suspected package bomb that just minutes earlier had exploded at a law office on River Avenue. First reports were simply of a woman being in critical condition. Later, we would learn it was Maria. It was just before 1: 30 p. m. when I reached Barry on his cellphone. He was at Health Sciences Centre, and he said both his family and Maria’s were there. “ She’s just going into surgery,” Barry said. “ It’s not good, Gord.” The flat tone in his voice suggested he was in shock. As did his next comment about the bomb. “ You know, the reason we live in Winnipeg is because it doesn’t happen here.” Then Barry had to go. Police had just arrived. I called Athina next and told her what had happened to Maria. How there was a news report she had lost a hand, and may lose another. Athina was shocked. She recalled something else Maria said that Saturday at the St. Norbert Farmers’ Market. “ She said she was in a hurry. She wanted to go golfing that afternoon.” It was later that afternoon when I texted Barry again. By that time, he just wanted to be left alone but I needed to tell him something. “ There are countless people pulling for Maria,” I wrote. “ And for you. Blessings to both of you. “ Thanks,” Barry responded. “ Means everything to us!” . . . If police suspect, as I do, there may be a direct link between the reasons for Barry Gorlick’s disbarment and what happened to Maria, the first place they will look is at the list of clients who might want to get even by taking the life of someone he loves. It’s a long list, but it will quickly get shorter. Why? Because there is a big difference between disgruntled. And deranged. gordon. sinclair@ freepress. mb. ca Lives shatter so quickly Casual visit couldn’t foresee terrible events yet to come GORDON SINCLAIR JR. WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Winnipeg police and fire paramedics attend the scene of an explosion in a law office on River Avenue Friday that sent Maria Mitousis to hospital. MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES RIGHT: Barry Gorlick, seen in 2007, is going through some very difficult times. ABOVE: Police search an area near Broadway and Hargrave Street Friday. Maria Mitousis had worked at a law firm on St. Mary Avenue until last fall. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS A_ 04_ Jul- 04- 15_ FP_ 01. indd A4 7/ 3/ 15 10: 02: 58 PM