#bookkeepers in Broadview

[philiphiggsbookkeeping]

If you are looking for a financial expert to handle your business’s finances, you must find one with the proper qualifications. A good bookkeeper will be able to keep track of all financial transactions and ensure that your company complies with government regulations. This will help prevent legal problems, but it also provides that your business has accurate records necessary when filing taxes at the end of each fiscal year.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Drug Store Thug Gets 4 Years, 15 Straps,” Toronto Star. May 11, 1932. Page 1 & 2. ---- ACCOMPLICE GETS TWO-YEAR TERM AND TEN STROKES ---- Diamond and Walker Pounded Drug Clerk With Butt of Revolver --- PLEAS FOR MERCY --- Doctor and Aldermen Testify on Behalf of Accused - Fight Against Evil --- Despite the pleas of R. H. Greer, K.C., and Ald. J. C. Elgie for David Diamond, charged with attempted armed robbery, and Charles Walker, his accomplice, Diamond, in police court to-day was sentenced to Kingston penitentiary for four years and 15 strokes of the strap. Walker, a first offender, was sentenced to the Ontario Reformatory for two years less a day, plus two years less a day and 10 strokes of the strap.

It was shown they had entered Halpern’s store on College St. with a gun and had slugged the clerk over the head with the weapon.

‘I can visualize the scene in that drug store,’ said his worship. ‘There was the honest citizen going about his business, doing is duty to support his family. These thugs enter, hold him up with a revolver, and then when he is courageous enough to stand up for his property, they beat him over the head with the gun.

‘Both of them have had every chance in life, they have had good homes and good associations. They are not like poor fellows who have never had a chance. Diamond was before me on a previous occasion; he then face 10 charges of theft and shopbreaking and I gave him a chance on probation. This crime of hold-up is becoming all too prevalent and it is my duty to impose a sentence that will not only be a deterrent to these young men but will also be an example to others.

Tell of Robbery Detective Sergeants Waterhouse and Stevens told of the robbery and of pursuing the accused to Montreal.

Dr. Hinks of the Toronto mental hygiene council, said he has known Diamond for 10 years. ‘He is a young man of great potentialities for good or evil. I admire him because of the brave fight he has made to live a good life,’ he said. ‘I feel for him the same affection that I feel for my own sons.’

‘You think he is courageous, brutally beating an unarmed man over the head with a gun?’ ‘Yes, sir.’

‘Well I do not agree with you,’ said the bench.

‘He has spent the past five years in doing good work, organizing sport and play in his church and on the city playgrounds,’ added the doctor.

‘Organizing crime you mean,’ declared the court.

Following the sentences, the pair, along with Stewart Curry, were charged with stealing a revolver, two stop watches, and $7 in cash from the Broadview Y.M.C.A. The bench allowed the charges against Wather and Diamond withdrawn and remanded Curry for sentence on probation for two years out an additional charge of receiving stolen property. 

[AL: Davis, not David, Diamond was 21, with no prior criminal record save that probation that didn’t really help. He was working as a stenographer and bookkeeper, though his file doesn’t say where. At Kingston Penitentiary, he was inmate #2638 and worked in the kitchen.  He did not support directly the October 1932 strikes and riots, though he had “many requests and suggestions” to make during the investigation afterwards. He was well-read on prison issues, and quoted an annual report from 1922 back to the investigators, asking why it was not the case that “prisoners who were here for the first time should be given an opportunity of getting parole after serving a short term...” Instead, he was convinced, rightly, that “the only persons who can receive paroles from this Institution are people who are influential or who have the necessary backing in Ottawa.” Diamond felt that “any young fellow similar to myself should be given an opportunity. I admit I committed an offence against Society. I am sport enough to take my punishment, but I would like to see young fellows given an opportunity of going out into the World and showing they can go straight.” He felt that the discharge money was inadequate, because most men went back “out into the world...no friends, no family, no money. They expect them to go straight. This $10 bill will only last five days.” He wanted better cigarettes, recreation, newspapers and education. He continued to support these demands, and supported a December 1932 strike in the kitchen. He was transferred to Collin’s Bay Penitentiary in August 1933, becoming inmate #583, and was released from there May 1935.]