Pubdate: Thu, 05 Oct 2006
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2006 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact:  http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Author: Kevin Rollason

EX-TRUSTEE'S SON STASHED DRUGS IN HER LAUNDRY ROOM

A former federal Canadian Alliance candidate and local school trustee 
didn't know her son had hidden more than $50,000 worth of crack 
cocaine in her laundry room.

For the crime, Matthew Granger, the 21-year-old son of Betty Granger, 
was sentenced yesterday to a total of five-and-a-half years in prison 
for drug offences.

Mr. Justice Nate Nurgitz, of Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench, said 
Granger only has to serve three years of his sentence because he has 
already been locked up for the equivalent of 30 months awaiting sentencing.

But Nurgitz warned Granger that he should give up his criminal 
activity or he would find himself spending even longer periods in a 
penitentiary.

"The business you were in is a business which invariably ends up in 
rooms like this," the judge said.

Earlier in court, Crown attorney Ian Mahon said police searched 
Granger's parent's home in River Heights on June 9, 2005, after the 
department's organized crime unit got a tip.

Mahon said the search found one kilogram of crack cocaine hidden in 
the basement laundry room.

As well, the search found more than $13,000 in cash in a basement bedroom.

"His mother was checking his room to make sure he was staying on the 
straight and narrow, but she didn't know about the drugs," Mahon 
said, adding that when arrested Matthew Granger also told police his 
mother didn't know about the drugs.

Betty Granger, a longtime Winnipeg School Division trustee, generated 
controversy during the November 2000 federal election when she told a 
group of university students she was concerned about an "Asian 
invasion" of Canada.

Granger lost the election to Liberal MP Anita Neville.
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MAP posted-by: Elaine