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You are here: Home / Investigation / A trust betrayed: Peter Kelly and the estate of Mary Thibeault

A trust betrayed: Peter Kelly and the estate of Mary Thibeault

May 4, 2014 By Tim Bousquet Leave a Comment

Cheques

This article was published by The Coast, on February 16, 2012. It won the Don MacGillivray Award for the best investigative reporting in Canada for 2012, the Atlantic Journalism Awards gold medal winner for Enterprise Reporting (print), the Canadian Association of Journalists award for best Community News reporting, and was one of six articles in Canada nominated for the Michener Award for public service journalism.

Halifax mayor Peter Kelly has failed in his role as executor of Mary Thibeault’s will, leaving her affairs in limbo over seven years after her death as he negotiates with heirs to secretly repay the $145,000 he received. by Tim Bousquet

When Halifax resident Mary Thibeault died in her St. Petersburg, Florida, winter home, she left an estate valued at over half a million dollars and a will naming 13 people and five charities as beneficiaries. One of the beneficiaries was Halifax mayor Peter Kelly. Thibeault called Kelly a friend and valued his judgement: In addition to naming Kelly an heir, she chose him to be both executor and trustee of her will, responsible for distributing Thibeault’s wealth to the other heirs.

Thibeault’s estate is not especially complex. There are no property title disputes, and nobody has come forward to say that Thibeault owed them money before she died. Typically, such simple estates take about 18 months to work through probate—the legal process of distributing an estate—and they unfold in a straight-forward manner: the court recognizes the executor, the heirs are notified, an inventory of the estate at the deceased person’s death is taken, property is sold off, money is distributed to heirs and a final accounting is submitted to the court.

But Mary Thibeault’s estate has not moved successfully through probate. More than seven years have passed since Thibeault died on December 7, 2004, and there has been no full accounting of her estate. Some heirs have received some of their inheritance, but are expecting more. One heir has died waiting for his full inheritance, others are in ill health and one is very elderly, nearly 100 years old. Charities named as heirs have not been notified that they are to receive part of the estate, and have not received a dime.

Read the rest of this article here.

Filed Under: Investigation Tagged With: Mary Thibeault, Peter Kelly

About Tim Bousquet

Tim Bousquet is the editor and publisher of the Halifax Examiner. email: [email protected]; Twitter

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The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Mo Kenney. Photo: Matt Williams

Episode #18 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne is published.

Mo Kenney’s new record Covers is a perfect winter companion — songs from across the rock spectrum that she’s pared down to piano or guitar and turned them into sad ballads. She joins Tara to talk about choosing and arranging them, and opens up for a frank discussion of the alcohol dependency it took a pandemic for her to confront. Plus: Movies are back (again).

This episode is available today only for premium subscribers; to become a premium subscriber, click here, and join the select group of arts and entertainment supporters for just $5/month. Everyone else will have to wait until tomorrow to listen to it.

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Uncover: Dead Wrong

In 1995, Brenda Way was brutally murdered behind a Dartmouth apartment building. In 1999, Glen Assoun was found guilty of the murder. He served 17 years in prison, but steadfastly maintained his innocence. In 2019, Glen Assoun was fully exonerated.

Halifax Examiner founder and investigative journalist Tim Bousquet has followed the story of Glen Assoun's wrongful conviction for over five years. Now, Bousquet tells that story as host of Season 7 of the CBC podcast series Uncover: Dead Wrong.

Click here to go to listen to the podcast, or search for CBC Uncover on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast aggregator.

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