BARRIE — The most recent individual to plead guilty in the selling of fraudulent Norval Morrisseau artwork appeared in Barrie court on Wednesday, where his lawyer and the Crown jointly proposed that he serve two years under progressively more lenient house arrest.
David Bremner, 78, of Locust Hill in the Markham area, listened impassively as the court worked through various procedural issues and then heard extensive victim impact statements before Superior Court Justice Michelle Fuerst.
Bremner won’t be formally sentenced until Sept. 9, but there was little in Wednesday’s proceedings to indicate that the judge would reject the joint submission, which is effectively a plea bargain.
Bremner politely declined comment outside the courthouse, but did say he looked forward to his case being resolved next month.
Morrisseau, who died in 2007, was known as the “Picasso of the North” and was actively involved in trying to stamp out the sale of forgeries in the last years of his life.
The issue has persisted after his death and has been the subject of extensive media coverage, including a TVO documentary that triggered the investigation which eventually ensnared Bremner, court heard.
While generally regarded as Canada’s most accomplished Indigenous artist, the mass production of fake and forged works attributed to him has become a hot-button issue within the wider cause of reconciliation.
In a case that has been inching along – fraud cases are notoriously difficult to prove, especially slow to investigate and make their way through the courts – Bremner is the fourth person to plead guilty. At least one other man is slated to go to trial in the coming months.
James White, an 84-year-old Essa Township resident who pleaded guilty last month, is expected to receive a similar sentence as Bremner next week in Newmarket court, also before Fuerst.
The complex investigation started in Thunder Bay, Ont., and was later joined by Ontario Provincial Police, looking at separate fraud rings that were loosely affiliated with one another.
Eight individuals were eventually charged.
Two ringleaders, Gary Lamont and David Voss, have already been handed five-year prison sentences.
Under the terms of Bremner’s joint proposal, he will serve eight months under house arrest, the next eight months under a strict curfew and the final eight months under “statuary conditions,” which effectively means probation with other limitations.
Court heard that Bremner was not a mastermind in the extensive fraud, which involved almost 900 fake Morrisseau paintings. His role was to provide fake certificates of authenticity, complete with “gold” seals backed by his dubious appraisals.
Bremner’s role was “not primary ... but (he had) a high degree of responsibility,” Crown attorney Joseph Heller told Fuerst.
Court heard victim impact statements for much of Wednesday.
“It was (a) moral and spiritual violation of his being,” Morrisseau estate representative Cory Dingle, testifying by video, said of the extensive plot to produce and sell fake art from the acclaimed painter.
In his detailed victim impact, Dingle also explained to the court that the late artist “died poor while others like David Bremner profited” from his work.
Toward the end of his almost-hour-long address to the court, Dingle struck a positive tone.
“(Norval) believed in the spirit of Canada and what it could become,” Dingle told the court.
Another victim who bought a fake Morrisseau painting drew a stark picture of what Bremner and his co-accused could face some day.
“When we go to the other side (after death), we can’t take our money with us,” said one unnamed victim, openly suggesting that Bremner should make amends with “his maker” to ensure his misdeeds aren’t held against him by a higher power.
