What you are going to read here is not published on the Lang Michener web site.
You can find the
Lang Michener web site at
http://www.langmichener.ca/
What we are going to tell you raises serious questions about the ethics and integrity of
Lang Michener.
In December of 1998,
Sun Belt Water Inc., its president and Canadian lawyer were preparing to travel to Ottawa to meet with officials with the Government of Canada to discuss a possible settlement of the
Sun Belt claim filed under Chapter 11 of the
NAFTA.
Without invitation or solicitation,
Mr. Cliff Sosnow, a lawyer with the Ottawa office of the prestigious law firm of
Lang Michener, contacted the president of
Sun Belt Water Inc. and offered the services of
Lang Michener and himself to
Sun Belt Water Inc. Mr.
Sosnow now works with the large law Canadian law firms known as B
lakes that represents
Themis Program Management and Consulting Ltd a Defendant in the Federal Court lawsuit filed by Mr./ Carten and Ms Gibbs.
Mr. Sosnow's proposal seemed straightforward. He and others at
Lang Michener had experience in international trade law and, being in Ottawa, they understood how the government functioned, how decisions were made and who to go to if there was a problem.
Over the next several months, when
Sun Belt Water Inc and its lawyer attended meetings with
Government of Canada officials in Ottawa, they met regularly with Mr. Sosnow in the Ottawa offices of
Lang Michener, provided briefings and listened to his advice.
The meetings with the government officials in Ottawa proved fruitless and
Sun Belt Water Inc. filed its formal
Notice of Claim and Demand For Arbitration in October, 1999, under the provisions of
NAFTA, the Government of Canada fraudulently denies receiving this document which is published online at:
http://www.sunbeltwater.com/images/sun2.pdfIn early December of 1999, Sun Belt's lawyer, Mr. Carten, received advice that
Prime Minister Jean Chretien had been an investor in
W.C.W. Western Canada Water Enterprises Ltd., (WCW) the competitor to
Sun Belt Water Inc. and the company secretly selected by the Government of British Columbia to have the effective monopoly over bulk water exports.
Because the advice was not documented, Mr.
Carten contacted both the federal
Department of Justice and the
Prime Minister's Office to obtain a confirmation or denial of this alleged fact. Both the Department of Justice and the Prime Minister's office refused to answer Mr. Carten's question and the fact of Mr. Chretien's investment is assumed to be true based on the absence of a simple denial and the considerable circumstantial evidence.
The supposed involvement of
Prime Minister Chretien, as an investor in WCW, raised serious issues concerning the
bona fide nature of the offer of
Mr. Sosnow and
Lang Michener to become involved as advisory legal counsel for
Sun Belt Water Inc. These issues arose because, Mr.
Chretien and Mr. Eddie Goldenberg, his senior policy advosor, had been partners with
Lang Michener prior to Mr. Chretien and the Liberal Party of Canada taking over the government of Canada.
Was it possible that Mr.
Sosnow and
Lang Michener were double agents and were, in fact, working for
Mr. Chretien or
Mr. Goldenberg, while ostensibly working for
Sun belt Water Inc ?
Was it possible Mr Sosnow and
Lang Michener were secretly working for the Government of Canada where Mr
. Sosnow had been an employee?
Due to the possibility of fraud by
Lang Michener, Mr. Carten wrote to the managing partner of Lang Michener and asked him to clarify the matter. As expected,
Lang Michener did not respond to the direct question as to whether or not Mr.
Sosnow and the law firm were double agents. Instead, the managing partner of Lang Michener responded saying he was offended at the fact that Mr. Carten would have the audacity to question the integrity of such hallowed and revered law firm as Lang Michener.
The possible complicity of
Lang Michener, as a double agent, was heightened when Mr. Chretien's Minister of International Trade,
Sergio Marchi, took up a position with Lang Michener in Toronto and Mr.
John Reynolds, a prominent Conservative Party loyalist, left politics and joined Lang Michener. Mr. Reynolds had a close relationship with
W.C.W. Western Canada Water Enterprises Ltd. when he was a cabinet minister in the government in British Columbia
Both
Mr. Reynolds and
Mr. Marchi were non-lawyers but joined Lang Michener in an advisory capacity.
The allegation that Lang Michener acted as a double agent remains unproven because the Federal Court
and the Government of Canada will not permit us to proceed with our law case in the normal manner.
Jean Chretien Eddie Goldenberg Sergio Marchi John Reynolds