100 Days Under Siege: Oh, my

There have been a couple of posts now, showing video from the grand performance put on by AUPE on August 2nd.

Here is another angle from that same day.




Quite the show.  How fascinating to watch them harass and provoke a pregnant woman, among others, just trying to move in, and justify jumping in front of moving vehicles because it's a picket line.  Notice, around the 7:30 mark, the guy claiming that the entire building is part of a labour dispute, when in reality, only SAIL, with it's office in unit 103, is the place of business, and that Artspace's private parking lot entry is part of the picket line.

The care workers, by the way, parked by the SAIL office.  They never parked on this end.

Then, at 7:35, he's heard saying, "never cross a picket line" repeatedly.

Let's think about that rather remarkable statement.

This AUPE staffer tells us we are to NEVER cross a picket line.

They picket all around the Artspace high rise, and even block people on the cul de sac behind the high rise.  They claim the townhouse side as part of their picket line, too, when it's convenient for them.  They picket in front of the above ground and underground parking lot entrances.

So if we are never to cross the picket line, that means Artspace members can never leave their own homes, until they, themselves, happen to not be there.  And we we happen to be out, we can't come home, until they leave.

Saying that Artspace is under siege is no exaggeration.

The woman shouting "mind your own business" is a "care" worker.

Here's a clip from a much later video, the rest of which can be seen on our Youtube channel.

One of the more interesting performers of the day is the old guy with the torn, yellow t-shirt.  The one who kept making all sorts of allegations about SAIL's finances, threatening to send a letter to the Auditor General, and making comments about "funny money, Mickey Mouse financial statements."

So who is this guy?

Well, we know him as AUPE lawyer, William Rigutto.  He's mentioned quite a bit in the media, like here and here  (interestingly, where AUPE is making another accusation of "bad faith"), and numerous other places.

AUPE even identified him as their lawyer, like here, on their twitter account.

This guy has shown up a few times at Artspace, has threatened people repeatedly with subpoenas and telling them he was going to seem them testifying in front of the Labour Board, making all sorts of accusations against SAIL, focusing mostly on fraud.

We all just sort of assumed he was what AUPE said he was.  That he was a lawyer.  A very unprofessional one, but still a lawyer.

Until now.

It turns out that William Rigutto isn't an lawyer.  At least not in Alberta.  When confronted with the fact that he's been identified as their lawyer in numerous places, AUPE just tried to brush it off as reporter errors (13 times?), then claimed he was a lawyer in Quebec, which made it okay.

Uhm, no.  It isn't.

Another problem is that, when we try to confirm this, there isn't much to find.  Except this.

The article is in French, so there's a translation of part of the opening paragraph.

In 2003, William Rigutto, well known in the business community of Montreal, siphoned tens of thousands of dollars belonging to his client, the Italian manufacturer of industrial cables Lesmo;then he wrote a half-dozen false invoices to explain why the account of his client was zero; Mr, Rigutto then lied to his client by telling that the money disappeared from his trust account had been hidden by him in an offshore fund in Hong Kong to evade seizure.

Oh, my.

This would mean that Rigutto isn't a lawyer in Quebec, either - so if that's what he told AUPE, then he has misrepresented himself as a lawyer, which is illegal.

AUPE has been asked to confirm if this is the same William Rigutto.  This was their response.

The full English translation of the article is provided below.  Meanwhile, there has been another case against William Rigutto involving trademark infringement found.

AUPE should come clean as to whether or not their "counsel" is really someone convicted of stealing thousands of dollars from his client.

At the very least, AUPE's members deserve to know who their union has representing them.

In 2003, William Rigutto, well known in the business community of Montreal, siphoned tens of thousands of dollars belonging to his client, the Italian manufacturer of industrial cables Lesmo;then he wrote a half-dozen false invoices to explain why the account of his client was zero; Mr, Rigutto then lied to his client by telling that the money disappeared from his trust account had been hidden by him in an offshore fund in Hong Kong to evade seizure.

And that was just the beginning of problems, said yesterday Alvaro Piva, president of Officine Meccaniche di Lesmo, Milan.

The Italian manufacturer has made these statements during his testimony before the Disciplinary Committee of the Quebec Bar, hearing the case against the former lawyer William Rigutto by Deputy trustee Luc Lapierre.

Mr. Rigutto, who did not attend his hearing on Tuesday resigned from the bar during the investigation of the trustee in May 2005 and remains subject to punishment for his actions while he was a lawyer.

Mr. Piva told Tuesday that his first professional contact with counsel Rigutto dated back to 1996 when Lesmo opened a subsidiary in Canada to facilitate its exports of machines for the manufacture of steel cables.

Things happened uneventful until 2002, when Mr. Piva has decided to dismiss its Canadian director, Willie Hauer and buy back its shares.

"It should be a simple dismissal, but it became a mountain, a catastrophe!" Said Mr. Piva the three members of the Discipline Committee. Instead rid Lesmo Canadian leader, he Rigutto Me "gave an exclusive agency agreement, without telling us, without being authorized."

The case bounced in Ontario courts, where Mr. Hauer got handily payment of $ 225,000 Lesmo. A bank account Lesmo was also seized, forcing Mr. Piva to pay some of its employees with his own money.

A transaction with an American client was taken in the case, when more than $ 301,500 paid into the trust fund Me Rigutto began to evaporate.

Mr. Piva, the accounting auditor Lesmo who discovered that the account was zero and Me Rigutto had served in the account by making false invoices. Milan, Mr. Piva jumped on the phone and called me Rigutto, "Are you mad" asked the manufacturer.

"He told me not to worry, that the invoices were false, that it was a strategy to protect the money of a seizure (the so difficult to dismiss Canadian director), and the money was hidden in an account in Hong Kong. "Mr. Piva. I Rigutto promised to repay.

Ultimately, $ 130,000 has never reappeared and Lesmo got compensation of $ 87,000 Fund Professional Liability.

The deputy trustee of the Society, Lapierre, yesterday asked the disciplinary committee to impose a variety of sanctions and an order to repay $ 48,400.