PhD grad sued over loan repayment tactics

‘FLIGHT OF FANTASY’

More than three years after Angela Greter completed her PhD in animal science at the University of Guelph, she hadn’t repaid any of the $64,000 loaned to her from Student Aid Alberta.

Instead, she repeatedly invoked what an Alberta court adjudicator recently said amounted to legal mumbo jumbo to avoid repayment — “pseudolegal” tactics ripped from the playbooks of con men and designed to “frustrate the administration of justice.”

These half-baked arguments are appearing with “troubling frequency” in Canadian courtrooms, noted the adjudicator, ordering Greter to repay the loan.

But in phone and email exchanges this week, Greter, who lives in High River, Alta., with her husband, said the court had “grossly misrepresented” what she was seeking.

Her intent, she said, was never to avoid or stall paying back the money. All she was trying to do was get assurance from the province it was still the debt holder and that it hadn’t securitized the debt and sold it to another party.

“If they had sold the securities, which means they already got paid, and they are continuing to ask me for payment, then they are being paid twice and that is unjust enrichment,” she said.

Greter said she couldn’t afford a lawyer at the time, so she turned to the Internet. That’s when she was led astray, she said.

“I found a bunch of websites talking about administrative process and providing templates. I don’t have a law degree, I thought they looked like they were more or less asking what I was trying to ask, so I used them. … Everyone makes mistakes.”

According to court documents, Greter had received $64,360 in loans in 2004-12.

In December 2013, a year after completing her PhD, she wrote to Student Aid Alberta complaining the province had failed to provide proof it was the “current holder of the … original debt.”

Greter demanded copies of accounting records to show Alberta had “incurred a loss of the alleged debt (proven loss)” and a “True Bill inked in blue with ‘Bill’ and ‘Value’ marked upon the face.”

If the province remained silent, she wrote, “I will consider its silence to be assent and agreement that no debt exists.”

In February 2014, Greter served notice on the province it would have to start paying her penalties for time she had to spend interacting with the government, filing court documents or being in court.

In April 2015, she sent a letter to Service Alberta’s debt collections office demanding proof of a contract between the government and the “flesh and blood name of Angela Marissa Greter (NOT the legal name).”

Two months later, the province sued Greter for repayment of the loans, plus interest. In March, it applied for a summary judgment, a ruling without the need for a trial.

In a May 24 decision, Sandra Schulz, a master in chambers with the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta, lambasted Greter for trying to “deny and evade” repayment.

Asking a creditor to produce a “True Bill inked in blue” is nothing more than a “flight of fantasy.”

The fee schedule that Greter had imposed on the province amounted to “intimidation,” the court said. That the law recognizes a distinction between a person’s legal self and physical self is “absurd.”

Schulz ordered Greter to pay the principal and interest owed, about $70,000, plus $3,000 in legal costs.

Greter said it was never her intent to thwart the administration of justice. She said after talking to a government lawyer a few weeks ago, she became satisfied the province was still the debt holder and immediately set up a repayment plan.

However, Greter hasn’t ruled out an appeal.

“I feel that this ruling really misrepresents my side. … I’m concerned by how this could be misinterpreted in the public arena.”