XPost: tor.general, soc.culture.canada   
   From: pm.chambars@w.cn   
      
   "Master of Malice:   The Ghermezians put an end to Bill Grosvenor's 'news   
   tips'"   
      
   Alberta Report   
   July 3, 1989 , Pg. 19-20   
    By Tom Philip and Glenn Kubish   
      
   Edmonton Reporters know all about William (Bill) Grosvenor's "news   
   tips."   
      
   The invariably concern the Ghermezian family, developers of West Edmonton   
   Mall, and they always have something bad to say about the Ghermezians and   
   their company, Triple Five Corporation. "Hi, t's Bill Grosvenor," goes a   
   typical call. "I've just persuaded the British authorities to cancel the   
   Leeds project." A few phone calls and the "story" inevitably turns out to   
   be false. But other Grosvenor claims are downright defamatory - a   
   favorite is that the Ghermezians are selling drugs in the video arcade at   
   West Edmonton Mall - and Grosvenor doesn't just make them to Edmonton   
   reporters, with whom he has exhausted whatever credibility he might once   
   have had.   
      
   Grosvenor, like the Ghermezians, has expanded his operations to Europe,   
   where he has made his malicious comments to newspaper reporters and   
   businessmen who don't know any better than to believe him.   
      
   The Ghermezians - brothers Raphael, Bahman, Eskander and Nader - fear   
   Grosvenor may have done significant damage to their business ventures in   
   Europe, where they are negotiating to replicate West Edmonton Mall with   
   developments in Leeds, England and Oberhausen, West Germany. Yet they did   
   little about it until an Alberta Report story last month quoted Grosvenor   
   admitting he intends "to use all means at my disposal anywhere in the   
   world to put the Ghermezians out of business." The Ghermezians cited the   
   story, which detailed Grosvenor's methods and motives, in obtaining an   
   interim injunction from Mr. Justice D.R. Matheson of the Court of Queen's   
   Bench of Alberta two weeks ago. It prevents Grosvenor from making "any   
   statement intending to prejudice the minds of the public" against the   
   Ghermezians, and from communicating with anyone doing business with the   
   family. A few days later they obtained a similar injunction from a court   
   in West Germany, where Triple Five is negotiating to build a $6-billion   
   World Tourist Centre in the north Rhine city of Oberhausen.   
      
   The Ghermezians backed their application for the gag order with stories   
   from Alberta Report and the West German newspaper Die Zeit. Alberta   
   Report has also obtained numerous letters, court documents, newspaper   
   articles - even Grosvenor's own resume - dating back to 1970, revealing   
   that Grosvenor, 48, has a criminal record for assault and extortion, that   
   he was diagnosed at Riverview Psychiatric Hospital in British Columbia in   
   1973 as suffering from a paranoid  personality disorder, and that his   
   harassment of the Ghermezians is only the latest in a 20-year series of   
   vendettas against corporations and individuals, including leading figures   
   of the British Columbia legislature and judiciary. The documents also   
   reveal a remarkable willingness on the part of some newspapers to accept   
   Grosvenor at face value. The Edmonton Journal, in particular, has   
   described him over the years as a "consultant," an "import-export   
   consultant" and "president of an international management consulting   
   firm," lending Grosvenor a credibility which his history shows is not   
   deserved.   
      
   William David Michael Grosvenor's career as a self-described opponent of   
   graft and corruption began shortly after he arrived in Toronto (he says   
   from England) in the mid-1960s, and it got off to an inauspicious start.   
   According to a Vancouver Sun story about Grosvenor in July 1970,   
   Grosvenor was fined $50 in April 1967 for assaulting a security guard who   
   was attempting to eject him from a bank he was picketing over alleged   
   "irregularity." At about the same time, Grosvenor claimed credit for   
   uncovering wrongdoing in the affairs of Prudential Finance Corp., an   
   Ontario company that collapsed owing creditors $20 million. But   
   then-Finance minister Mitchell Sharp told parliament that Grosvenor had   
   "revealed nothing of value." Indeed, Mr. Sharp believed that Grosvenor,   
   who describes himself in his resume as "a registered expert on fraudulent   
   bankruptcies with the RCMP," had probably been fired by Prudential's   
   auditors. In 1968, after a brief stint with an accounting firm in Halifax   
   (where he changed his name from Gruber), Grosvenor left for Prince   
   Rupert, B.C., where he found work with accountant Odd Eidsvik. A source   
   claims Mr. Eidsvik soon became disenchanted with Grosvenor's work and cut   
   his pay in half.   
      
   It was while living in Prince Rupert that Grosvenor discovered a new   
   avenue for pursuing his many grievances: the courts. In February 1970,   
   Grosvenor charged Prince Rupert MLA William Murray and provincial court   
   Judge W.N. Poole under the B.C. Companies Act with failing to file an   
   annual return for companies of which he claimed they were directors. A   
   district judge promptly threw out the charges, noting that Grosvenor had   
   failed to make even a prima facie case that Mr. Murray and Judge Poole   
   were directors of the companies in question - but not before the story   
   was picked up and prominently displayed by the Vancouver Province, which   
   printed the news of the charges without comment. At about the same time,   
   Grosvenor charged the local Bank of Montreal with forgery. Again the case   
   was dismissed, with Judge J.T. Harvey labelling Grosvenor a "master of   
   malice" for bringing an action against a bank that had intended only to   
   spare him the embarrassment of having a cheque bounce.   
      
   All told, Grosvenor brought seven court cases in less than a year while   
   living in Prince Rupert. Four never got to trial, two were dismissed and   
   one ended with Grosvenor being ordered to pay a counter-claim larger than   
   the amount owed him. In July 1970, Mr. Justice A.B. Macfarlane of the   
   B.C. Supreme Court invoked a law designed to prevent abuse of the courts   
   to prohibit Grosvenor from instituting any new legal proceedings in the   
   province without the permission of a court. In the meantime, Grosvenor   
   himself had faced charges. In April 1970 he was convicted of attempting   
   to extort $50 from Prince Rupert businessman Campbell McLeod by   
   threatening to prosecute him under the B.C. Companies Act. He was   
   sentenced to one day in jail and fined $400.   
      
   Shortly thereafter Grosvenor moved to suburban Vancouver, where he found   
   a new target in General Motors Canada Ltd. (GM), manufacturers of the   
   problem-plagued Firenza. In May 1973 he and a woman named Hendrika   
   Peeters, with whom he shared a New Westminster address, stationed   
   themselves outside a Vancouver GM dealership and attempted to steer   
   potential customers to another GM dealership a few blocks away. "It is   
   utterly incredible to me," said Mr. Justice A.A. Mackoff of the B.C.   
   Supreme Court in issuing an injunction barring Grosvenor from the site,   
   "that a group saying it seeks to relay information about General Motors   
   should have the temerity to say this GM dealer is a good guy and the   
      
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