by Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (DEC 06/96) - Liz May-Broda was a mixture of defiance and tears as she sat in the middle of the restaurant she has owned for more than seven years.

Around her bailiffs were tagging, recording, then packing everything in the restaurant -- from pop to major appliances -- into boxes and then loading them into a waiting truck.

"Business has dropped so much in the last year there just wasn't enough to cover everything," said May-Broda.

Deputy Sheriff Charles Loranger explained he and the bailiffs were exercising a writ of execution.

"We're ordered to remove all contents associated with the Split Pea," said Loranger.

The writ of execution said the Split Pea owed Revenue Canada a total of $117,036.90 in GST, payroll taxes and penalties.

May-Broda said she had sold off an inherited farm property in Alberta for $40,000 in an attempt to pay part of her debt. She added that Revenue Canada had also seized her bank account.

"They've certainly taken a hard-line approach," said May-Broda's lawyer, Alan Denroche.

"What would have been nice is if a person from Revenue Canada could have been there for the seizure to see the result of the decision," said Denroche. "Unfortunately, that job falls to the poor bailiffs."

The tears May-Broda shed, however, were clearly not for the bailiffs.

"How can they take personal pictures, gifts from my daughter, off the wall?" she asked.

Loranger said any objections concerning property seized could be filed with the sheriff's office.

A 46-year resident of Yellowknife, May-Broda has no idea what she will do now.

"It all depends on whether they come and take my house."