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One cool dude


by Judi McLeod
September 9, 2002

When writing for Toronto Free Press and its new weekly Internet edition Canada Free Press becomes too mentally draining, a drink with my private investigator friend Bill Joynt picks me back up.

There’s a natural affinity between investigative journalists and private eyes, since both spend so much of their time trying to chase down the facts. During those times when we hit a brick wall on an enterprising story, Joynt, a treasure trove of ideas, can always be counted on to get the story going again.

When I first met him about seven years ago, he was just starting out building a new company called The Investigators Group with partner Sean Gadney. Like any new business, the going was sometimes tough.

Now with some 65 private eyes on the pay roll, The Investigators Group is the largest investigative agency of its kind in Ontario, and still growing.

Some of the work they do is truly awe-inspiring. They once earned newspaper headlines by digging up enough evidence to free a man languishing in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. Given the pressures of business, they had to get out and collect the evidence in their `spare’ time. Spurned on by the mother of the jailed man, they spent hours in freezing winter on the backroads of Quebec. All duties were conducted gratis. But along the way, they met a host of interesting people all working pro bono to free the wrongfully imprisoned, not the least of whom was the colourful Reuben Hurricane Carter.
And of course, Chris Bates, liberated from incarceration thanks to their amazing digging, will never forget the names of Bill Joynt and Sean Gladney.

Not all of their work entails such high drama.

They’ll be the first to tell you that almost as much patience as black coffee is needed during long, boring hours while out on surveillance, which forms the backbone of their work.

The Investigators Group has a team of the best surveillance specialists available anywhere to offer corporate, insurance, legal and professional investigation service, now available worldwide. Former police officers, security specialists, business people and forensic identification experts are represented on staff,

Included among their roster of in-house detectives are some genuine characters. Some are fine tuned in specific areas of expertise, like the one whose boast is that anyone can be found, and recently proved it by finding a long-term missing person by scanning a pizza delivery list.

Detective Debby MacDonald, who lives for her job at Investigator’s Group, is straight out of a John Grisham novel.

Although the firm does not pursue domestic service, it has conducted domestic detail for existing clients.

One woman was adamant to have her suspected errant husband followed and proven unfaithful for once and for all. In time, the client was shown video proof of the husband’s philandering, Because she had been so determined, detectives, were worried, anticipating her disappointment and anger. "That’s not my husband," she declared when presented with the proof. Close-ups of hubby’s flip side were shown, "That’s still not my husband," she persisted, determined not to accept information she had already paid for.

Some of the requests made to The Investigator’s Group are the stuff of booklore and bear out the old concept that truth is stranger than fiction.

Teaming up together on stories for the paper have brought more than a few adventures, and the gumshoes swears he will some day author a book entitled, Judi and Me.

A tireless mentor, Joynt is one of the most encouraging people I know in his unflagging faith for the success of Toronto Free Press.

In his personal life, Joynt pays as much attention to detail in the upbringing of daughters Carly, 15 and Allanah, 9, as he does at work. This Sunday, he was the proudest dad in the park when Allanah’s team took home the pennant, in the Pickering Softball Association Championship.

The family spends as much time as they can at the cottages of the girls’ grandparents on both sides, where Golden Retriever Jennifer clears submerged rocks, some of them gargantuan, at a rate so steady she recently cleared out the entire area. Rocks had to be dropped back into the lake, so that she could retrieve again the following day.

Meanwhile, there’s no doubt about it, the father of Carly and Allanah is one cool dude.

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


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