est Van tax fraud jailed

Wednesday, June 17, 1992 — North Shore News - 3

four years

Former WV iawyer sentenced on 264 counts of income tax fraud and evasion

FORMER WEST Vancouver

lawyer Gordon Hazlewood,

who last month was found guilty in B.C. Supreme Court on 264 counts of income tax fraud and evasion, has been handed a four-year prison sentence.

Mr. Justice John Hall issued the sentence Tuesday as Revenue Canada investigators who con- ducted a five-year examination cf Hazlewood’s business activities and some of Hazlewood’s former clients sat in the public area.

Two of Hazlewood’s companies were also fined approximately $1.4 million. And Hazlewood was ordered to pay approximately $1.1 million in compensation to the victims.

Judge Hall told a calm Hazlewood that he ‘‘wreaked havoc on the investors and played a cruel hoax on them.”’

The judge added that Hazlewood was able to convince himself of almost anything.

By Robin Brunet Contributing Writer

Prior to sentencing, Hazlewood raised a variety of complaints about his trial, ranging from the allegation that Revenue Canada withheld documents that would have vindicated him to the charge that Crown counsel suggested he was lying during cross-examina- tion because his ears repeatedly turned pink.

But Hazlewood maintained that his ears turned pink out of rage not because he was lying.

Justice Hall, however, dismissed Hazlewood’s complaints after the second day of discourse, saying that ‘I don’t think we should

retry the case.’’

The fraud charges against Hazlewood relate to a tax-loss in- vestment scheme he operated in

GORDON HAZLEWOOD

the early 1980s.

A total of 154 people, including professional hockey players Kevin McCarthy and Patrik Sundstrom, bought into the scheme after being told the monies would go to oil and gas exploration, a Yukon mining project, and various real estate developments.

By 1985, Hazlewood had sold $10 million worth of investments and would have pocketed a $5 million profit had Revenue Canada not stopped the payments of tax refunds to investors and disallowed the losses that were claimed.

Prosecutors Ian McKinnon and Valerie Hartney proved during the nine-week trial that Hazlewood’s business projects either didn’t function or didn’t exist.

Hazlewood, acting in his own defence, unsuccessfully applied to quash the seizure of 45 boxes of documents from his office that

were used against him as evidence and tzied to prove his legitimacy by detailing alleged involvement in muiti-million-dollar joint venture deals around the world.

Hazlewood’s questionable business practices date back to the 1970s.

In 1975 he was suspended by the Law Society of B.C. for il- legally demanding commissions on a property sale in Langley.

Hazlewood’s tax loss investment scheme has proved disastrous for clients, many of whom are facing financial ruin because of interest compounded daily on the disallowed deductions.

“Some people have already gone bankrupt,’"? says Revenue Canada investigator Nick Lianza. “One individual has a debt of $300,000, of which about $180,000 is compounded interest.’

Hazlewood plans to appeal Tuesday’s sentence.

Legless man unhappy with ex-fiancee’s sentence

-Court prohibits woman from driving for two years following bizarre NV accident

THE WOMAN who crushed her ex-fiance’s legs during a drunken motor vehicle ride in North Vancouver in 1990 is still driving while impaired, according to the ex-fiance.

David Gallson told Madam Justice C.A. Ryan. in B.C. Supreme Court on Monday that Elizabeth Butzow, 27,. drove her Mazda RX-7 into a ditch near Salmon Arm three weeks ago with his nine-month-oid daughter unsecured in the back seat.

Butzow, he said, had received a 24-hour suspended sentence for ‘impaired driving in. connection with the.incident. , .

‘He added that Butzeow was drinking on the weekend and driv- ing the same rent-a-truck that crushed his legs to. atterd her B.C. Supreme Court trial.

Unfortunately, Gallson discovered Butzow’s activities

Robin Brunet Contributing Writer

after he told Justice Ryan in court last Thursday that his former fi- ancee wai ‘‘a good mother’? and pleaded for the court not to im- prison her.

It was a bizarre twist to a story that began on-th: evening of Dec. 29, 1990 at the Seven Seas Res- taurant in North Vancouver, where Gallson, Butzow, Gallson’s brother Jack and a number of other people were dining.

_ The party had been drinking heavily and argaing throughout

the evening.

As reported in the June 14 News, one argument culminated in a fistfight between Gallson and his brother in the restaurant’s parking Ict.

As the pair brawled, Butzow climbed into the driver’s seat of a rented Chevy Lumina and drove towards them. The _ vehicle’s wheels crushed Gallson’s legs, and he subsequently found himself clinging to the hood of the moving Lumina screaming for Butzow to stop.

Butzow stopped after a high- speed ride up Lonsdale Avenue and along 3rd street, rear-ending a Toyota pickup and reversing in- to a taxi cab.

At her trial on Thursday, But- zow burst into tears when the prosecutor recounted the on-site

46 My legs are worth more than a mere two-year driving prohibition. 99

paramedic’s assessment of Gallson’s legs.

“The bones were shattered, the muscles ripped apart and expos- ed,’’ the prosecutor said. ‘‘In hospital the legs were amputated below the knees.”’

Butzow had a blood alcohol reading of .190 on the night of the accident. ,

She told on-site witnesses that she had been trying to get away

LGH boss says loss of surgeons not a crisis

THE IMPENDING loss of two of three neurosurgeons at Lions Gate Hospital is not a crisis, according to LGH

president Bob Smith.

LGH head neurosurgeon Dr. Brian Hunt says the neurosurgeons are leaving behind an underfunded health-care system and accepting higher-

_ paying jobs in American hospi- tals where they have access to more operating room time in {2- cilities equipped with leading- edge diagnostic tools.

Said Hunt, ‘‘When I started off in 1973, our income for our procedures was acceptable. The operating room and the beds were available, and the patients were well looked after.

“In my lifetime, I’ve seen a gradual erosion of the health- care system. The part that disturbs me is that no one is able to stop it. It’s a_ relentless detericration.””

But, according to Smith, the prospect of enhanced earning power motivates medical specialists to migrate south.

“In the greater scheme of things most specialists, whether they are neurosurgeons, ortho- pedic specialists, what have you, they go to the United States in the short-run to earn more money,’’ Smith said.

He added that the hospital has

By Michael Becker News Reporter

already received expressions of interest from neurosurgeons across Canada for a position vacated by Dr. Barrie Purves at LGH.

Purves has accepted a job at a hospital in Sioux City, lowa.

Said Smith, ‘‘Perhaps some would react to this as if there were a crisis and some would not. Our attitude has been that we do not have a crisis at the moment: our job is to get out and recruit, and that’s what we're doing.”’

According to Hunt, LGH neurosurgeon Dr. Loubert Sud- daby will leave the hospital as easly as December for a job at a

* hospital in Buffalo, New York.

Said Smith, ‘“‘There’s always 2 belief that we have an ongoing brain drain. Some of the things that are perhaps contributing to the neurosurgeon incidents is that the fee schedule which is developed by the B.C. Medical Association is somewhat incon-

sistent with the work of other specialists. I understand that there have been some amend-

“ments promulgated to that fee

schedule.”’ The three neurosurgeons

working at LGH are each allot-

ted four hours of elective surgics! operating room time per week. An additional four hours of elective neurosurgical time is available weekly as needed.

Said Hunt, ‘“‘This is such a small time when you consider a brain surgery can go six or eight hours. A back surgery can go two hours. So it really doesn’t allow much time to practise surgery.”’

Last year the three LGH neurosurgeons performed 600 surgeries at the local hospital. The hospital works with seven operating rooms, including a 24-hour emergency room.

LGH handled 6,639 inpatient surgeries and 14,329 daycare surgeries in 1991,

According to LGH_ surgical booking officer Leah Christie, the heaviest operating room de- mand comes from gynecological, orthopedic and general surgery physicians.

Said Christie, ‘‘I think all the surgeons are frustrated. Even if you had double the OR {operating room) time there

would always be a demand for | more.

“It’s built into them, and they are trained to just work, work, work, What has happened is that there are more specialties here now. So there is more of a de- ‘mand to the OR. That impacts. When we started here we had one neurosurgeon,for example.’*

According to Smith, an operating room booking com- mittee reviews operating room time and adjusts availabilhy to reflect the workloads of physi- cians. The OR booking commit- tee includes the heads of all surgical departments.

“If a wait-list is causing peo- ple to wait in excess of 12 to 16 weeks for elective surgery, then this OR booking committee will try to find ways to adjust OR time,’’ Smith said.

Of 37 people who had surgery at LGH between April 24 and May 21, six had to wait more than eight weeks.

Said Smith, ‘‘So there is not an overwhelming wait-list for neurosurgery. It would be hard to go back to the OR booking committee and say, ‘Hey guys you have to change the schedule around here.’ ”’

Added Smith, “I think if you ask any surgeon in the province, they would like more OR time.”’

— David Gallson

from Gallson, that he had alleged- ly beaten her up and had been try- ing to hit her through the wind- shield as she made her getaway.

A domestic violence specialist told the court on Thursday that Butzow had been in an abusive relationship and that she had in- deed driven away to avoid a beating. .

For his part, Gallson, who has since been fitted with prosthetic legs and can walk. unaided, told the court “I'm doing fine; I can ever dance.’

He ‘said that because of the

i. pressures of the court case, he and

Butzow were no longer living together and that Butzow was car- ‘ing for their daughter, Jade.

On. Monday, Justice Ryan handed Butzow a_ suspended sentence on charges of impaired driving causing bodily harm and suspended her from driving for two years.

“She (Butzow) has a prior con- viction of impaired driving, but she has suffered deep remorse for the (1990) accident,’ the judge said. ‘I do not see her posing a threat to society.”

A visibly shaken Gallson stated his case after Justice Ryan delivered her sentence.

“‘My legs are worth more than a mere two-year driving prohibi- tion; she’s still driving crunk, with my daughter in her care.’’

Justice Ryan repeated her sentence and wished Gallson *g00d luck.”

Gallson later told the North Shore News that although Butzow doesn’t have custody of his daughter, Butzow won’t allow him to see her.

“I'll be seeking custody of Jade in light of what I’ve learned. My point to Justice Ryan was that I was worried for my daughter’s safety.”’

Gallson has also filed a $1 mil- lion civil lawsuit against Butzow, which is scheduled to be heard in court next January.