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shouted a few words of warning. We figured out he was trying to tell us
Papneja’s van had started up, all by itself. We could see the exhaust.
Turning to the front door of the clinic, we saw a man coming out the
door. He must have started the van with one of those remote starters.
He was dressed in a dark overcoat, wearing one of those tea-cozy hats,
the kind the guy was wearing who was choked by Prime Minister Jean
Chrétien. The flaps were pulled down over his ears; the bottom portion
of the flaps were sticking out at right angles to his head. Papneja? Yes.
Was this a disguise or was he just cold? I poked Laurie, who was already
shouting something and trying to get out her side of the Neon.
“Hey boys,” I shouted into my open microphone. “It’s Papneja. In
the hat! In the hat! Go! Go! Go!” My feet hit the cold ground and I
took a few tentative, Frankenstein-like steps.
“Laurie, block the van,” I shouted. Laurie fired up the Neon and
went blasting past me as I loped toward Papneja.
“Dr. Papneja,” I said in my most pleasant tones. “I need to talk to
you. It’s Dale Goldhawk. At first, Papneja turned toward me, big smile
on his face. When he heard my name, he stopped dead in his tracks.
Just then, from behind, Paul and Marek arrived and lit up Papneja like
a Christmas tree. Papneja climbed into the van, not saying a word,
only to find a Dodge Neon pulled up to his rear bumper, blocking his
way. I tried several times to get Papneja to talk to me. He said nothing.
“Let him go,” I finally said to Laurie, who moved her Neon block-
ade. Papneja backed out of his parking spot and sped off into the night.
We were already at full gallop toward a fish-and-chips shop in the
plaza. Blasting in the front with all our gear, I shouted at the cashier.
“Washrooms?” I said, way too loud. He just pointed. We ran. I shout-
ed over my shoulder, “Fish and chips all round, please. And beer.”
We saw Papneja many times after that. We sat in the same hearing
room for days, as Papneja appeared before a Discipline Panel at the
Ontario College of Dental Surgeons. He pleaded guilty to an act of pro-
fessional misconduct relating to the Laurie Few diagnosis. He was fined
$10,000. His certificate of registration from the College was suspended
101
Getting What You Deserve
for six months. He was prohibited from practicing dentistry for that
time. He was also ordered to pay the $5,000 cost of the hearing.
Meanwhile, flight attendant Monique Gillan was left to wonder how
many other patients might have suffered her fate. Monique has a
mouthful of new fillings that will have to be maintained for the rest of
her life. We had opened the file on the Papneja case in May of 1994.
We closed it in May of 1996.
Some people we chased more than once. Vic Harris was a mover who
specialized in countrywide moves where the move would cost cus-
tomers twice as much as the estimate he gave them. In some cases, he
just “lost” several loads of furniture. Harris was a broker. He would sell
you a move and then go to a real mover to book trucks and men. He
was never very fussy about the trucks or the men.
We had dealt with Harris many times on the phone. Usually, he
would refund money when we demanded it for some of his unhappy
customers. When the stream of complaints continued, month after
month, we went looking for Harris to find out if he was the world’s
most incompetent mover or just a cheap crook. Harris had no office.
He worked out of his car. He would flit from household to household,
giving estimates to customers unlucky enough to have responded to his
enticing newspaper ads. Once you gave Vic a sizeable deposit, there
was at least an even chance you would never see him again.
Bagging Harris was embarrassingly easy. How do you get a mover?
Call and ask for an estimate. He comes to you. And we were waiting.
As soon as he came out of our contrived moving job in a sting-bunga-
low in west end Toronto, we were there. We caught up to him on the
street and walked along as he fended off our questions by complaining
about his cash flow problem and how hard it was to find good movers. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]