Letter to Les Dube

O.K. this may be a little different than usual. I understand this is just my little old blog, and it doesn't go far, but, I tried to find the proper channels to get this where it was suppose to go, with no luck. I am afraid you folks will have to bear with me, and either read this, or...let it slide. Apparently when you become so insanely rich with massive corporations of your own, getting in touch for the average human being, becomes difficult, couldn't find an e-mail for anything besides the many charities that extol this man's name. Hey, I could have sent this off to them, but..not likely they would give a crap about someone bad-mouthing their sugar daddy.So, here goes, my letter to Mr. Leslie Dube
Dear Mr. Dube,
  We have never met, and unless you fix the mess you created, it is likely for the best we don't cross paths.I have spent countless hours for the past few months reading up on you, like my husband was told to do by your good friend Mr. Martin Carsky (through the mouth of his supervisor). See, my husband worked for Maple Leaf Loading Ltd. before and after all your stock market shuffles, and even after 28 years, he still doesn't listen to my insane nattering when I start to get an irritating itch from things I can't scratch. I started to itch around about December. You remember, that's when you moved all the guys out to camp. Now, the word out there was the move became necessary because the costs rose for the apartments. Hey, might be true. But then, you even moved the offices out of town. Hummm...Oh, I brought this up to my husband, I told him something was fishy, you don't decide all at once to drop 40 apartments, have them cleaned and empty in one month, because of costs. You have some well-educated folks in your financial department with all kinds of letters behind their names, they must have seen the associated costs long before the last month of the year.Oh ,hey, he gave me the reasons he got, I didn't believe a word of that dribble. Those reasons included the fact that the Walter Energy Coal haul had to help carry the Stewart haul along with everything else, because Maple Leaf Loading (or Pro Trans Ventures,doesn't really matter what name you use) wasn't getting paid for that haul. Seemed pretty strange at the time, and....perhaps one day soon, we will learn the truth in that matter.
  Then you switched to C.O.D. on a ton of your services. Again, that itch started. One question I have to ask, if indeed you went C.O.D. how the heck did you manage to rack up so much debt? Now we hear through the paper work filed in the receivership, your books are not up to date. Really?
  So, lets fast forward to Walter Energy's announcement that they were going to Idle the Brule. Holy cow, when I heard that, I told my honey he had better get his resumes out, and we had to get all our ducks in a row. Ahhh..again, that itch I was scratching, he didn't feel at all, because....that is when your partner Mr. Martin Carsky came up with the best idea of all. There was nothing to worry about, the employees were told, Walter Energy had lots of coal stockpiled, and promised to customers. This coal had to be hauled, and good old Maple Leaf loading was going to haul steady until October. Oh, even better, word about had it, if they upped their production the mine might even restart, and we wouldn't even notice a bump in the road.
  Funny, Mr. Dube, I think, even though we have never met, I know you pretty good. I could read between all your lines, perhaps you didn't personally think them up, but, if you were doing your job properly, like you must have with the Concorde group of companies, you would have put a stop to them if they were not acceptable, so guilty by association.
  Then of course we get to the really good stuff. The day you decided to request that 5 million dollar loan you handed out at "arms length", that almost gags me..arms length, and sitting on the board of directors, knowing full well you are not getting your due interest payments on that loan. On May 21st, the itch became a nasty rash. I was up and down from my computer like a Yoyo. Pro Trans Ventures was all over the stock reports. They suddenly ceased to exist, because you got this overwhelming urge to get your loan, and all those other folks who sat down at board meetings with you, decided they couldn't pay you back. How does something like this happen? Why didn't you pick up the phone when you missed that first payment in January? How did you manage to make billions when you let 5 million slide? See, Mr. Dube, you are a good business man, you have to be to get where you are today, and turning a blind eye to something like this, can't be anything but premeditated. Hey, I was reading between all the lines. I noticed that Don Watt was given his position for a period of 3 years..funny, that's pretty much the same amount of time you folks let this company exist.
  So, with my nattering in his ears, my husband went off to work to find out what the truth was. You were suddenly the owner of Maple Leaf Loading, Pro Trans Ventures board of directors had all resigned, oh, including yourself...(when you asked for your loan back). I kept telling him this was a farce, something was up, and I think this time, he actually heard me. Imagine my surprise when he called to tell me, your buddy Mr. Carsky had told everyone there was nothing to worry about, they were now owned by someone with deep pockets, who wanted to make the company viable. He told me the guys were all told to look you up on the internet..and they did, what an awesome man! You handed out 30 million to charities, they certainly had reason to believe the message from Mr. Carsky. Even more telling, you apparently requested my husband make up a schedule with all the drivers, including their holidays, for the months of June and July. Well, gee, maybe my itch was caused by something besides my uneasiness with the goings on in Maple Leaf Loading.
  Do you know, there were guys who trusted the lies you allowed to be fed to them so much, they put all their savings into a down payment for a home?No surprise, when they were suddenly unemployed(and I do mean suddenly) the lenders pulled out, and..they lost all of their savings because down payments on homes(as someone in the real estate business, you know this)are non-refundable. Do you know folks relaxed and felt they had months left to work, so there was no need to put off vacations? Guys purchased tools. My son, well, he got screwed over twice by you and your friends. He was promised a mechanic apprenticeship. He filled out all the paper work with help from the office staff and wanted patiently for his number. Surprise, that number never came, not a single piece of that paperwork went beyond Prince George..just one more in the list of lives screwed by your game. Your arrogance, and ignorance caused hardship in most of the families you were the sole employer of.
  All of your lies or perhaps your disregard of those spread by those you kept on in management, were nothing less than criminal. I for one feel like vomiting when I read all the wonderful things you do for others, and I am feeling the utter desperation of losing a full month wages, and holiday pay. I wasted my time trying to convince my husband this was a disaster in the making. His supervisor, only days before this hit the fan, assured him that when the job ended he would get all kinds of pay-out (by the way, this was one of those who stayed on with Ernst and Young, perhaps he got all that he claimed my husband would?). Well, instead you allowed all of these people who had been fed lie after lie to cover all the stuff I questioned, to continue supplying someone with money. At this point after looking at the Receiver's list and seeing Pro Trans Ventures listed as a creditor, even though they no longer exist, and Darby Kreitz another creditor, who the heck gets this money? It's definitely not the ones who worked for it!
  What you allowed to occur makes every penny you have handed to charity null and void. Are you Robin Hood? You know take from the workers to give to the poor? You certainly did not take from the rich. Not a single person who left your company on June 27th, walked away with the ability to forget a full months pay. Your disregard for these people will affect them for months to come, to climb out of a hole like this is difficult. Do you know that events like this cause rifts in families because of stress? For all you know, you may be the reason some couples break up. For someone who apparently cares for their fellow human beings so much, you build hospital wings, you seem to have no consideration for those who are in your employ.
  You can sit back and claim this is now in the hands of Ernst and Young, but, like Shakespeare's Lady MacBeth, that spot will never come out for you. Each time you stand for the photographer, after handing out another tax write-off, may the 200 families haunt you, 200 men and women who have lost not only their jobs, but their quality of life. 200 employees with children who will watch their parents struggle, all because of your actions, or lack there of.
  Those who sat with you playing the board game of Pro Trans Ventures and Maple Leaf Loading, those who have offices for another company that wins prizes from Ernst and Young for being such great profit making businesses, those who hand out insane interviews to the media from their homes in Vancouver, not accepting any blame, instead spinning it to seem like this was Walter Energy's fault. Those who just traded in their vehicle for something nice, bright and shiny new, although , they haven't been paid for a month..or...were they?
  So now, Mr. Dube, at 58 years old, I have gone back to my back breaking job cleaning hotel rooms. I am not working 3-4 days a week, as I would like to do because the job is not exactly easy at my age. No, I am working every single day I can, to try and stay out of the creditors bad books. I realize I am lucky. We sold our travel trailer a few days before all of this happened, with plans to purchase a smaller one, to enjoy vacations in the bush. Instead, we have to use that money to cover up the money you stole from us, and any thoughts of vacation have evaporated. The loss of a vacation, and a travel trailer, are small in comparison to the loss of a down payment on a home, so, we are lucky..sort of, thanks to the most charitable man in Saskatchewan, and..the most uncharitable in British Columbia!
Yours (gosh just can't say sincerely)
Debbie