4 - Friday, June 7, 1991 - North Shore News Reynolds digging d THE HONORABLE Member for West Vancouver-Howe Sound is being flailed for his dishonorable attacks on a dead man. So what's so dishoncrable? And, anyway, the object of Jonn Reynolds’ revelations wasn't the conduct of the deceased, a man named Bachittar Sihota. Jt was the conduct of his son, Munmohan, better known as Moe Sihota — the New Democrat MLA and his party’s justice and labor critic. The media have behaved like a Victorian dowager encountering a socially unacceptable odor, first indignantly Nouncing their skirts and then imperiously ignoring it. But Reynolds, a tough gent and no sweetheart, still smarting from an NDP attack on his own business dealings, and maybe a candidate for the Social Credit party leadership after all, has responded with a bare-knuckles swing at the media, such as: “If (Moe) Sihota was a Socred, the NDP and certain media would keep this in the headiines for weeks.”* — Reynolds’ letter to the editor of the Victoria Times- Colonist. “Only some Victoria press gallery types would genuflect in concurrence with the NDP’s Trevor Lautens GARDEN OF BIASES presided over a company that had a writ for unpaid wages issued against it. The above was only the tip of the S. & S. iceberg’s deeply tainted record established when Bachittar Sihota was in charge. Moe Sihota, as guarantor, was stuck with a dozen forectosures, 44 Apparently it would have been more decent of him if he had unloaded the cost on the taxpayer. 99 whisper campaign before resear- ching the facts.*’ —- Reynolds’ let- ter to the editor of the Vancouver Sun. And Mr. Reynolds has indeed researched the facts. And paid for the research himself — which, ironically, he’s also being attacked for. Apparently it would have been more decent of him if he had unloaded the cost on the taxpayer. The facts ain’t pretty. Moe Sihota was director of a company called S. & S. Stores Ltd., previously S. & S. Appliances (Penticton) Ltd., from 1977 to 1986, and variously president and guarantor of some of the obliga- tions of the company — founded by his father in 1959, During Moe Sihota’s presidency of S. &S., Reynolds told the legislature, actions were taken against the company by Hankin Furniture for an unpaid account (1978), by Her Majesty for unpaid sales tax (1979) — the Queen gets very upset by that sort of thing — and a writ of seizure and sale for unpaid wages was issued under the Employment Standards Act (1984). It is indeed amazing, as Reynolds said, that the party of democratic socialism’s labor critic RESTAURART 445 13th St, West Vancouver 926-8922 defauit judgments and suits. Perhaps the seamiest 8, & S. Stores episode involved its tax division, which operated in Quebec. In 1978 Quebec's Consumer Protection Office, the Montreal Star reported, condemned the operation, an all-too-familiar one: it made out income tax forms for people and offered cash on the spot in exchange for part of the expected tax rebate. The director of the Consumer Protection Office said S. & S. and an unrelated company ‘‘in effect offer hidden loans at clearly in- flated if not usurious interest rates’? — 50% and sometimes higher. That kind of operation is an outrageous ripoff of the poor, the desperate, and, very often, the semi-literate. The Montreal Gazette reported that when consumer affairs in- vestigators raided the Van- couver-based company’s discount centre in Wuil, the staff — and their files — had vanished. Reynoids didn’t mention it, but there’s a Vancouver small businessman who has waited for years to get his money from Bachittar Sihota. HONDA Civi In 1982 Jake Klippenstein, owner of Northwest Carper Distributors Canada Lid., sold the elder Sihota about $15,000 worth of carpets. Mr. Klippenstein took pains to make sure Bachittar Sikota could pay for the gocds. Yes, the bank reported, the account showed that the funds were on hand to cover the bill. That was at midweek. The carpets were foaded up and taken toan S. & S. store in Williams Lake. On the following Monday, said Mr. Klippenstein, the cheque bounced. So did subsequent ones. In 1984 Klippenstein got a judgmen for about $15,000. But he’s never col- lected. It's doubtful if he ever will, unless he can get it from the estate: Bachittar Sihota died a few months ago. But, to be fair, Mr. Klippens- tein said that Bachittar Sihota did once pay back part of the bill: $2 Yes, $2, from his pocket. Oddly, the two men lived only two blocks from each other — on Salish Drive, in Vancouver's pricey Southwest Marine Drive area. Klippenstein wrote Moe Sihota in 1988, asking for settlement of the father’s bill and conceding that “have no written contrae- tual agreement with you.’ Moe Sihota wrote Klippenstein twice, on Nov. 30, 1988 and Feb. 20, 1989, stating in the fatter that ‘‘in light of your acknowledgment eep into Sihota’s past that FE have no contractual obliza- tion to yourself, | would suggest that you proceed after the true debtor in whatever fashion your counsel suggests."’ in fairness, Moe Sihota is said to be privately aggrieved about his father’s business dealings and pro- tective toward other, innocent family members. Still, one more thing has to be said: it's surprising that Moe wrote those two letters on the sta- tionery of his office as MLA of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. What was the name of that guy who lost the premiership for mix- ing his private and public business? 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