Attention: Hal Bond

[Peter McKillop]

Barry's verbal report to Trillium
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Looking at the report I filed in 2008, I can see that a few questions remain about Barry's final report to Trillium.

I am only aware of the verbal report which he provided at our face to face meeting with Pugsley and Lubbock. His report was more of an explanation of why so little happened. Barry cited another recreation group that had booked all the available space in York Region. Barry was able to spend over an hour talking about it and both staffers were very disappointed. The equipment purchases were made pro forma.

As for the outrage, I fully empathise. Been there, had to leave.

Hal, what did you mean when you said that the equipment purchases were made pro forma?

[David McTavish]

From Kevin Spraggett's blogpost today:
After the Ontario Trillium Foundation washed its hands of the OCA, the membership has been consistently blocked and frustrated in any and all attempts to find out what really happened to 120,000 dollars that the OCA received and managed during a 2 year period.
The current CFC leadership, almost all former OCA politicos, were involved from the very beginning when Mr. Barry Thorvardsson conceived of the idea of applying for the grant. They are all in a position of conflict of interest with respect to finding out the truth, and rather than step aside and create an independent commission to investigate the scandal, they are tossing the ball between each other and wasting precious time.

The OCA membership has been easy to manipulate and control: they behave as helpless victims, enslaved and unable to assert themselves.



From ChessTalk yesterday, quoting Peter McKillop:

Here's what I'll commit to do. I have some family issues requiring attention but, by no later than the end of this month, I shall submit a complaint, from a taxpayer's perspective, to my MPP, Tim Hudak.

I'll also commit to assisting on a committee that will properly investigate this matter subject to these conditions: 1) that people understand that I won't be in a position to make much of a contribution this month; 2) that, as noted elsewhere by Steve Douglas, the OCA provide the committee members with all of the necessary authorizations required to review all of the OCA's records, including banking records, and to represent the OCA in dealings with third parties (e.g. former OCA directors, Trillium, the bank); 3) that the committee's terms of reference be acceptable.


Do you think Peter's terms are fair?

Du you think that Peter, Canada's greatest player ever ( thts Spraggs, not Gretzky:)), and others will just stop asking questions? Can you provide SOME transparency, Hal?
This is not going away.

[Hal Bond]

Hi Peter;

What I meant by pro forma is that equipment purchases (clocks, boards and pieces) were purchased in accordance with the grant.

The salaries were also part of the grant. The spending categories were respected I believe. The issues arose regarding staffing and delivery of the grant objectives. As I understood it, this pilot project was targeted at youth chess, with the idea of increasing chess activity several fold.

[Hal Bond]

Peter, David et al;

I have provided my report and tried to fill in blanks when asked. I am disappointed to have been named as someone who is trying to conceal the "truth". For 27 years I have served this Federation and my integrity has been central to this service.

Shall I describe the depths of my embarassment and fury when I found out that Barry had duped us all? It was a seriously dark day in August of 2007. As newly elected President of the CFC (defeating Barry Thorvardson) most of my energy had been devoted to the national trainwreck.

I sent an email to Barry asking who was paid the Trillium salaries. He replied that Leslie Armstrong was paid $2000-3000, as was Roman Pelts,(both legit) and the rest went to him. BOOM!! I consulted with many colleagues. Advice ranged from calling the police to demanding Barry's resignation. I chose the latter. Barry refused, stating that he had done nothing wrong! The rest is in my report.

Jim Ferrier was the Treasurer during this period and when I contacted him he confirmed that he provided a second signature.

[Kerry Liles]

Peter, David et al;

I have provided my report and tried to fill in blanks when asked. I am disappointed to have been named as someone who is trying to conceal the "truth". For 27 years I have served this Federation and my integrity has been central to this service.

Shall I describe the depths of my embarassment and fury when I found out that Barry had duped us all? It was a seriously dark day in August of 2007. As newly elected President of the CFC (defeating Barry Thorvardson) most of my energy had been devoted to the national trainwreck.

I sent an email to Barry asking who was paid the Trillium salaries. He replied that Leslie Armstrong was paid $2000-3000, as was Roman Pelts,(both legit) and the rest went to him. BOOM!! I consulted with many colleagues. Advice ranged from calling the police to demanding Barry's resignation. I chose the latter. Barry refused, stating that he had done nothing wrong! The rest is in my report.

Jim Ferrier was the Treasurer during this period and when I contacted him he confirmed that he provided a second signature.

Thanks Hal! I may be wrong, but it seems that everything you posted in this note is new information (certainly is new detail to me, and I have been following this issue for some time!). It has long been alleged that one or two 'other people' received money other than Barry (and it was widely believed those other amounts were paltry sums in comparison).

THIS is exactly what is needed: facts.
I guess we can leave the innuendo to Kevin Spraggett's blog.

[Peter McKillop]

Peter, David et al;

I have provided my report and tried to fill in blanks when asked. I am disappointed to have been named as someone who is trying to conceal the "truth". For 27 years I have served this Federation and my integrity has been central to this service.

Shall I describe the depths of my embarassment and fury when I found out that Barry had duped us all? It was a seriously dark day in August of 2007. As newly elected President of the CFC (defeating Barry Thorvardson) most of my energy had been devoted to the national trainwreck.

I sent an email to Barry asking who was paid the Trillium salaries. He replied that Leslie Armstrong was paid $2000-3000, as was Roman Pelts,(both legit) and the rest went to him. BOOM!! I consulted with many colleagues. Advice ranged from calling the police to demanding Barry's resignation. I chose the latter. Barry refused, stating that he had done nothing wrong! The rest is in my report.

Jim Ferrier was the Treasurer during this period and when I contacted him he confirmed that he provided a second signature.

Hal, at ChessTalk you made this comment in a post: "It's not clear to me what a second report was supposed to achieve." From my perspective it seems very clear what a second report should have aimed to achieve (i.e. in very broad terms, to restore the perception of the OCA as an ethical organization run by people who place a high value on acting with integrity) and I took your comment to mean that you were trying to discourage further attempts to examine the Trillium grant. You've indicated that my take on your comment was wrong. I apologize.

Similarly, I said elsewhere that Kerry Liles was one of those lobbying against the truth coming out. Kerry, I apologize to you, as well.

What is needed here, Hal, (and I don't know why it should be necessary to point this out to people like you and Chris Mallon and Eric Van Dusen), in order to repair the OCA's image, is full disclosure/transparency with respect to all aspects of the Trillium grant.

For example, how can someone (von Keitz) issue a report that purports to investigate the Trillium transaction when the investigator hasn't even bothered to obtain a copy of the final, executed agreement between OCA and Trillium? How can you investigate something when you don't even know what the terms and conditions are? The *report* was so laughable that, frankly, I wondered if it was an OCA in-crowd joke.

Here's another example. Hal, you referred to equipment being purchased "pro forma" and then clarified that you meant equipment was purchased in accordance with the plan approved by Trillium. Well, precisely what was the plan approved by Trillium? What equipment was purchased, precisely how much did it cost, and what happened to it? Is it sitting in someone's basement? Was it distributed gratis to school boards or York Region's parks & recreation department(s)? How about seniors' centres; did they get any?

Here's another example. I haven't looked at any census data, but I strongly suspect that a "salary" of $42,500 per year ($91,000 minus the roughly $6,000 you said was paid to two other people) is more than the majority of people in this province earn. What the hell did Thorvardson do to earn this amount of money? There are almost 900,000 people living in York Region. What did he do, spend two years going door-to-door trying to give away chess equipment?

Hal, you were VP during the *Thorvardson Years*. What are you going to do to make sure that the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth gets out to the general chess public?

[Kerry Liles]

...snipped some stuff

Similarly, I said elsewhere that Kerry Liles was one of those lobbying against the truth coming out. Kerry, I apologize to you, as well.

...snipped some stuff

Here's another example. Hal, you referred to equipment being purchased "pro forma" and then clarified that you meant equipment was purchased in accordance with the plan approved by Trillium. Well, precisely what was the plan approved by Trillium? What equipment was purchased, precisely how much did it cost, and what happened to it? Is it sitting in someone's basement? Was it distributed gratis to school boards or York Region's parks & recreation department(s)? How about seniors' centres; did they get any?

...snipped some stuff


Thanks for the apology Peter (there was no need to do so, but thanks).

I can tell you that there are a number of very good (weighted, staunton) sets of pieces - with extra Queens, and corresponding roll-up vinyl boards with the OCA name on them. After the AGM in Brampton in 2008 (where B.T. wisely decided not to run for re-election) I put 40 or so of those sets in my car and stored them at my place for a couple of months... At that point, the GTCL was going to run some sort of event and the current OCA VP kindly drove out to Mississauga to fetch those sets for that event. I think there are about 80 sets altogether, but I don't know the exact number or their current whereabouts. They *are* being used for OCA events when they are needed or asked for. Chris Mallon took most if not all of the clocks that the OCA possessed at the same time I took some of the sets. I presume Chris or others on the OCA executive know where the clocks are and how many there are.

I presume these sets and clocks (or a significant portion of them) were purchased with the Trillium funds - initially for use in York Region but now for general use by the OCA. I do not know the details of that equipment purchase (how much, from whom, when, how many etc)

Of course, the OCA website *could* have inventory information and even current location info for people who may need to 'check out' such items on short notice, but at the moment I guess anyone wishing to sign out that stuff would require contacting Chris (likely the best first call to make).

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

... At that point, the GTCL was going to run some sort of event and the current OCA VP kindly drove out to Mississauga to fetch those sets for that event.
....
I presume Chris or others on the OCA executive know where the clocks are and how many there are.

That event probably was the Olympic Fundraiser (details somewhere on this site with results and photos.)

The further history of sets were in the President report (or VP's - need to check) with numbers and future usage guidelines.

[Larry Bevand]

Thanks Hal! I may be wrong, but it seems that everything you posted in this note is new information (certainly is new detail to me, and I have been following this issue for some time!). It has long been alleged that one or two 'other people' received money other than Barry (and it was widely believed those other amounts were paltry sums in comparison).

THIS is exactly what is needed: facts.
I guess we can leave the innuendo to Kevin Spraggett's blog.

Hi Kerry,

This is what I posted on ChessTalk 18 months ago:

June 3rd, 2008, 08:53 AM #3
Larry Bevand
Administrator


Join Date: May 2008
Location: Montreal
Posts: 374
Rep Power: 10
Re: OCA Annual General Meeting

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When the Ontario Chess Association applied for a Trillium grant, I was included as one of the references. When Trillium called me, I gave a positive review with a caveat...that I had confidence the grant money would be well used as long as Barry was President of the OCA.

As it turned out, I was wrong. The grant was awarded for chess development (with an emphasis on scholastic chess) in York region which is located north of Toronto. This region, prior to the grant, was already one of the more active scholastic chess regions in Ontario. At first, Barry set out on the right track. He advertised for people to do the work. He received a number of applications including Mark Dutton and Leslie Armstrong. Leslie has been the CMA Ontario coordinator for the Canadian Chess Challenge for a number of years and is also a school teacher in York region. Mark Dutton was an excellent organizer in the Greater Toronto area.

At the beginning Leslie was given a small project of doing an inventory of schools which had chess clubs in the area. Barry also associated himself with Roman Pelts, who is a very qualified individual in chess training. Again both were good moves on his part. The OCA bought chess sets and clocks for loan to OCA and other chess events in Ontario. Again another good move.

Then things began to go downhill. Barry avertised a number of events in York region which resulted in either poor attendance or cancellation. Then none of the above contracts were renewed. None of the very competent people who had applied for the job of developing the region were being used. Then we pretty much stopped hearing anything from the OCA. It was only a number of months ago that it was revealed that Barry had hired himself in the position and had collected the lion's share of the grant money.

There is no doubt that Barry was instrumental in getting the Trillium grant for the OCA with the help of Gary Gladstone...who was on the Trillium board in York region. We were not doing him any favours by recommending him and his project...we believed in him.

The bottom line for me is that most of the money was wasted. Barry had very competent people willing to do the work. Instead he chose to hire himself. I don't believe chess in York region is any better off today than it was before the $120,000 project began.

Of course, what Barry did also violated internal rules of the Ontario Chess Association.


Larry Bevand
The above is my personal opinion, based on what I know about the situation.

and this was your response:

June 3rd, 2008, 09:57 AM #5
Kerry Liles

Join Date: May 2008
Location: Mississauga Ontario Canada
Posts: 378
Rep Power: 2
Re: OCA Annual General Meeting

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Thanks Larry for posting this information. There is precious little information around about the Trillium Grant and what was actually DONE with the money. Now it seems there might be good reason for that lack of information.

In the "2008 OCA Presidents Report" that Barry emailed around with the announcement of the upcoming OCA AGM, he provided NO information about Trillium other than this:

"The York Region Trillium Project successfully completed last July and the area continues to have great school programs and even more chess camps scheduled for this summer."

It is certainly NOT clear to me that the Trillium grant money was used to foster any of that alleged growth.

If Gary Gladstone is still on the Trillium board, he ought to seriously consider suggesting an investigation into the use of the grant. In an earlier post on CT some time ago, I also wondered if the grant money - used as salary - had been reported as income by Barry?

The upcoming OCA AGM was clearly not announced within the specified timeframe for the meeting and until recently the location was vaguely "Brampton"... in fact, if I recall correctly, the AGM must take place within a certain number of days (60) after the end of the OCA's fiscal year (March 31) - clearly that is not happening either.

A number of the OCA bylaws have been broken or ignored and it is time for this to stop.

[Hal Bond]

Peter - the other thing that I find annoying about the current uproar is the shortage of people who are willing to get involved in chess organizing and administration/governance. This is how the problem was allowed to arise - too many hats and too few heads.

You want to do a firensic review of the grant - go for it. As I said in my report, as annoyed as the Trillium folks were, they were not going to attempt to recover the money. So it is still not clear to me what you will accomplish. We trusted Barry, he betrayed us and he has been banned for life. If that's too simplistic a view, blame my other hats.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Hal, may you tell more about the meeting with Trillium, May 2008 - Have you discussed about the submitted "new" provincial grant? (It was supposed to be approved/denied ~ October, 2007)

[David McTavish]

Peter, David et al;

I have provided my report and tried to fill in blanks when asked. I am disappointed to have been named as someone who is trying to conceal the "truth". For 27 years I have served this Federation and my integrity has been central to this service.

Shall I describe the depths of my embarassment and fury when I found out that Barry had duped us all? It was a seriously dark day in August of 2007. As newly elected President of the CFC (defeating Barry Thorvardson) most of my energy had been devoted to the national trainwreck.

I sent an email to Barry asking who was paid the Trillium salaries. He replied that Leslie Armstrong was paid $2000-3000, as was Roman Pelts,(both legit) and the rest went to him. BOOM!! I consulted with many colleagues. Advice ranged from calling the police to demanding Barry's resignation. I chose the latter. Barry refused, stating that he had done nothing wrong! The rest is in my report.

Jim Ferrier was the Treasurer during this period and when I contacted him he confirmed that he provided a second signature.


Thank you Hal for the full disclosure.If there's any details that pop up later, please inform. We have some name and numbers now. Peter will not relent, albeit his anger, may be misplaced. The only one that has made direct accusations re. your role in this scandal is kevin spraggett.
everyone knows his tendencies and track record re. this. Baseless vitriol,usu.And most know of your nearly impeccable track record; i think being called in as an Arbiter for a Topalov match verifies this, as well as the utmost respect of the international chess community.
We need something from Ferrier now. It is the perceived cover-up that may be his undoing. If you are reading this, Jim, please respond. An independent inquiry would clear this up , as well. Indded, it may the only way. Criminal charges against Mr.Thorvardsson can still be levied. No statute there, but you'd have to check w/ a criminal lwayer, of course. As well as anyone aiding or abetting, complicit, or receiving some of these funds that Barry looks to have embezzled. He really thought he had done nothing wrong? Can he spell megalomania?Incredible, or as , Larry Christiansen always says."Amaazink!"

[Steve Douglas]

Here's another example. I haven't looked at any census data, but I strongly suspect that a "salary" of $42,500 per year ($91,000 minus the roughly $6,000 you said was paid to two other people) is more than the majority of people in this province earn. What the hell did Thorvardson do to earn this amount of money? There are almost 900,000 people living in York Region. What did he do, spend two years going door-to-door trying to give away chess equipment?



This thing is now way out of hand. Peter, I fully agree with you that there is a need to produce a clear explanation as to exactly what happened. Hal and Larry have provided a *lot* of information that, quite frankly, should have been in the original report. There seem to be some things that are irking you, or where you are mistrustful:

- the OCA *did* purchase a whole bunch of chess sets and to the best of my knowledge they are still around and used (I believe they were used at the CHESSCA tournament in 2008--I couldn't make it to the 2009 one)

- Barry *did* run a bunch of youth tournaments in York Region during the time in question

- the average Canadian salary reported on 680News today is $42,000

In essence, the only issue is that Barry Thorvardson hired himself and then did a sub-par job (consensus opinion). There was a clear conflict of interest and the results were sub-par (my opinion too).

A lot of people want to go looking for scalps here. That's pointless. Trillium granted the money for a specific purpose. It got spent (in some ways foolishly) for that purpose. Barry Thorvardson (apparently) breached all kinds of ethical rules to reward himself for doing a half-ass job.

So after that, what's to be done. The OCA booted him out and apologized to Trillium. (I'm relying upon Hal's report here but I have no reason to doubt it.)

The only thing that's missing is there is nothing written down. There's a whole lot of "everybody knows". Well, no we don't. So somebody *please* document this fiasco with the goal of trying to ensure that it doesn't happen again.

(Those who ignore history are doomed to repeate it. Those who study history are doomed to watch others repeat it.)

Steve

[Hal Bond]

Thanks David!

I tried to contact Jim Ferrier today but his email address bounced. He may be able to shed some light.

Egidijus, I'm not sure what you mean by the new grant of October 2007. If you refer to other grant that Barry was pursuing with Nevada tickets, that would be handled by a different group (within the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission?). It never really got off the ground as it turned out. As I reported, the meeting was called over 2 main concerns - staffing and deliverables. A third issue - the notion that the grant was lent to the CFC -was quickly dismissed.

I really didn't know what to expect from Barry that day, but he seemed quite confident. Even after admitting that little had been done for whatever reason, and that he did hire himself, he never came close to losing his composure. When I clarified that the OCA Executive did not know of his actions and opposed them when we found out, it rolled right off his back. The meeting ended around noon but Barry could have continued all day.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Egidijus, I'm not sure what you mean by the new grant of October 2007. If you refer to other grant that Barry was pursuing with Nevada tickets, that would be handled by a different group (within the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission?). It never really got off the ground as it turned out.

Same grant. My assumption, that the grant was with Trillium, were based on the 2007 OCA AGM minutes and the Barry's, as a CFC president-candidate, statements.

[David McTavish]

. If you refer to other grant that Barry was pursuing with Nevada tickets, that would be handled by a different group (within the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission?). It never really got off the ground as it turned out. .


Good. Nevada tickets are hugely popular in this neck of the woods of N.Ont.
Return is lower(20%?) than any other lotto set-up. I've seen them sold to kids. The desperately poor seem to be infatuated with them, remembering a past victory, perhaps. Also,bingo halls used to supply tons of cash, mainly used for admin salaries for the upwardly mobile, oddly enough, for 'non-profit' entities. Then a big , provincial raking casino took its place. Spin-off for local businesses didn't happen, as well as other local gaming facilities ( bingo halls , mainly -- another tax on the disadvantaged-- for programs for the disadvantaged?) shutting down. The 'Walmart' taxing of the gambling masses.

The sellers of Nevada are usu underpaid, ie., minimum wage. And overworked. And w/ many lotto, cigarettes, gas runoffs, etc sales, their tills can be egrigiously short. Not even their faults. But how do you make up a short? If working a long shift, and also talking to the last 'shifters', it is hard not not to know how many 'big' (say $500, now, i think) winners are left in the segregated bins of nevada tickets. Someone overworked, underpaid, blamed for losses, in fact has to pay them out of one's paycheque, AND has knowledge of where the nevadawinners are. HMM, wonder what's gonna happen. This worker, if caught scamming a few hundred dollars ( or even a few dollars to make up shortage in the till), would be fired w/ some of the OLC regs now in place, as well as charged. A branded criminal. But not if a store owner pays someone 10$, for a 649 winner, when , in fact, its a 10 million dollar winner. (New regs place the onus on the winner of a lotto ticket to sign it. thats OK i guess.)This has happened. Or if a non -profit organizer takes nearly 100K$ for himself in direct contravention to his org.'s by-laws, and , possibly, in violation of the guvvy' stipulated agreement ( haven't seen this yet, I hope we all do, before we pass away; Gary Gladstone, can u help? -- or does Greg Sarbaro need to get involved in this nickel and dime stuff?). I really don't like Nevada tickets.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

We trusted Barry, he betrayed us

This was a main problem, as a trust went without a control. I think there were less trouble done if financial statements were done regularly over that period with this template. (and should be done in future) http://www.chessontario.com/Meetings/oca/treas.htm

To improve the OCA, recommendations were briefed in the AC interim and final reports.