CANADA
APTN
10. JUN, 2014
Kathleen Martens
APTN Investigates
WINNIPEG – A Calgary lawyer is being allowed to resign instead of being kicked out of the legal profession.
David Blott is scheduled to give up his right to practice in Alberta on Friday, June 13. The move is in lieu of a disciplinary hearing where Blott could be disbarred for financially exploiting residential school survivors.
Legal officials say a resignation means the same thing as a disbarment but not to Kelly Busch of Saskatoon. Busch was one of the form-fillers indirectly employed by Blott to find and obtain residential school compensation information from survivors.
“A disbarment is not the same as resigning,” a disappointed Busch said over the phone. “It’s almost like letting him take the coward’s way out.”
Busch was one of two whistle-blowers to expose the Blott operation in B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, which involved wrongly charging survivors for filling out their residential school compensation forms, wrongly providing loans at exorbitant interest rates in advance of compensation payouts, and overcharging for legal work — along with other financial and legal misconduct.
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