George Chuvalo Abduction & Sham Divorce Proceeding

Hi,

I am posting this so that members of the boxing community are aware of what has been happening to George Chuvalo. For those who are unfamiliar, George Chuvalo is a former Canadian heavyweight boxing legend. He is 80-years-old and unfortunately suffers from significant cognitive impairment following his lengthy boxing career.

George was abducted from his matrimonial home in Caledon by a group of people in June of 2016. The group included a family member of George's first marriage and a security guard named Tom Doyle. George and his wife, Joanne, were prevented from leaving their driveway and George was physically removed from Joanne's vehicle. The group told George that they were going to take him to Muhammed Ali's funeral. George never arrived at Muhammed Ali's funeral and George was never returned home to his wife. By the time George was taken from his wife, his children had used power of attorney in order to file to divorce George from Joanne, to whom George has been married for for 24 years. Most of the Chuvalo marital property is in Joanne's name. If the children are successful in forcing their father's divorce, their share of expected inheritance will increase.

In the children's divorce application, numerous false accusations are made against Joanne Chuvalo. The children allege that Joanne stole approximately $500,000, depleted family assets at an alarming rate, and suffers from both gambling and drug addiction. However, George's children have never substantiated their allegations against Joanne Chuvalo in over two years of litigation.

In their decades-long marriage, George and Joanne never discussed divorce. When George was notified in June of 2016 that his children filed to divorce him, he revoked his children's power of attorney. His revocation explicitly states that he wants to end the divorce proceeding his children started and remain with his wife. When George's revocation was sent to his children's attorney, Tanya Road, the divorce proceeding should have immediately ceased. After all, George never hired her and even tried to fire her. However, Tanya Road disregarded George's revocation and continued to hold herself out as George's divorce attorney against his wishes. (To view a picture of the revocation, visit his wife's facebook group dedicated to bringing George home: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1538877719514004/).

When George was taken from the family home, Joanne called 9-1-1 to report her husband's abduction. Police located the vehicle containing George and questioned the passengers. In the meantime, Joanne's lawyer contacted police and informed them that she was on her way to explain the case to the arresting officer. For whatever reason, police let the car containing George leave without speaking with his wife or her attorney about what happened. Since that day, Joanne Chuvalo has been prevented from knowing where her husband is.

According to Joanne, George has been hidden around the greater Toronto area at his children's homes, nursing homes, and the home of security guard, Tom Doyle. Tom initially contacted George to propose the idea of constructing a community center in Brampton, Canada. After the idea fell through, Tom continued to visit the Chuvalo family home in Caledon, often without invitation. George was warned by multiple people that Tom had social media pages in which he posts obsessively about him, but George unfortunately paid little attention to Tom's increasing involvement in his life. According to Joanne, Tom began entering the Chuvalo home without knocking, at which time Joanne instructed Tom to leave the property. Thereafter, Tom began assisting George's children with their efforts in divorcing George from Joanne. For example, Tom Doyle was present when George was taken from his matrimonial home in June of 2016. (See Tom Doyle's social media pages here: www.thepicta.com/user/_tomdoyle_/1480208001; https://www.facebook.com/tom.doyle.1044).

In September of 2017, Joanne discovered which nursing home George's children were hiding him in. Joanne's sister, Janet, visited George, who claimed that he was forced to stay at the nursing home against his will and that he wanted to leave. The two then visited Janet's home where George confirmed once again in a recorded statement that he does not consent to being placed in a nursing home and that he wants to live with his wife in Caledon, Ontario. (To hear George's recorded statement, please visit https://soundcloud.com/…/george-chuvalo-wants-to-be…/s-iYoTg).

That same evening, Joanne arrived at Janet's house where she was finally reunited with her husband, George. The couple left Janet's to return home to Caledon. However, as Joanne and George were about to drive home, they were confronted by Toronto Police at the request of George's son, Mitch Chuvalo, who also arrived at Janet's property waving his power of attorney documentation. Since the police viewed this as a civil dispute rather than a crime, they did not make any arrests. Police ordered George out of his wife's vehicle and directed George to leave with Mitch. George and Joanne were holding hands at the time police ordered George away from his wife. Again, Tom Doyle also arrived at Janet's home. In the presence of police, Tom Doyle shouted insults from Janet's front lawn and claimed that he is one day going to own her home.

Throughout the divorce litigation, George has been examined by medical professionals who have declared that George now suffers from significant cognitive impairment. George informed one physician that his children's attorney, Tanya Road, gets angry with him when he refuses to sign the divorce application submitted by his children. By late 2017, George's cognitive impairment increased to the point that George mistakenly thought Tanya Road was hired to reunite him with his wife, Joanne.

In December, 2017, Joanne's attorneys filed a motion to stay the divorce proceeding. Her motion argues that George's children were never appointed as his Guardians Ad Litem and therefore never had permission to file for divorce in the first place. The motion also points out that even if George's children had permission to file for divorce, that permission was revoked back in June of 2016 when George mailed his revocation to his children's attorney. Justice Kiteley denied Joanne the right to argue her motion. Although neither Joanne nor George filed for divorce, Justice Kiteley ordered them both to a divorce trial that neither wanted. Justice Kiteley also ordered George to sign the divorce application he has been adamantly refusing to sign since the beginning of this case. In doing so, Justice Kiteley prevented George from altering the contents of the divorce application and effectively chose his lawyer for him. Joanne Chuvalo has appealed this decision.

A week long trial was scheduled to begin on January 8, 2018. Before trial started, Justice Kiteley ordered George's children and their attorney, Tanya Road, off of the case because the court determined that George lacked capacity to instruct counsel. Thereafter, the Office of Public Guardian and Trustee was substituted in as George's representative. George's revocation of his children's power of attorney was submitted into evidence, but the court ignored the revocation. Justice Kiteley also heard the September, 2017 audio recording of George (link above) claiming he wants to be with his wife of 24 years, but disregarded George's statements as, "...only words." At the close of trial, Justice Kiteley found that George lacked capacity to reconcile with his wife. In other words, even though George wants to return home, the court is not going to listen to him. Justice Kiteley admits, however, that the issue of whether George and Joanne ever actually separated is still disputed. Joanne intends on filing her appeal soon.

George has attempted to return home on numerous occasions, but is always prevented by police at the request of George's children. Although Joanne does not know where her husband is currently staying, George is sometimes seen at public or private events in the presence his son, Mitchell, and security guard, Tom Doyle.

Tom Doyle has attended virtually every court date for the divorce proceeding his children filed, usually with George's children. According to his social media pages (links above), Tom Doyle is commonly seen selling George Chuvalo's memorabilia at various events. Joanne believes that Tom Doyle is currently hiding George Chuvalo in his Brampton home.

***

Toronto Star investigative reporter, Mary Ormsby, covered this case in detail (See https://www.thestar.com/…/the-fight-over-boxing-legend-geor…; https://www.thestar.com/…/george-chuvalo-lacks-capacity-to-…). A documentary detailing the children's interference with George's marriage is also in the works.

Joanne Chuvalo is working extremely hard to get her husband back. This group is a place to share ideas and support for reuniting Joanne and George Chuvalo. The goal is to also create awareness about issues of elder abuse, undue influence, and the upcoming appeal of Justice Kiteley's decision to ignore George Chuvalo's simple desire to return home.

If you are interested in following this case, please join Joanne Chuvalo's Facebook group, "Bring George Chuvalo Home." (Link above)

 

Wrong. The judge kicked George's children and their attorney out of the case last month. The judge's decision was based on testimony of multiple physicians who have diagnosed George with cognitive impairment. His children did not testify because they aren't qualified to (his children aren't doctors).

If his second wife was trying to divorce him after 6 months, I would tend to agree with you. But here, George and Joanne Chuvalo have been married for almost 25 years. Neither George nor his wife filed for divorce. They want to remain married. I guess I don't really understand your point about his wife. How is she guilty of anything by wanting to remain married? There's currently a documentary in the works that will explain the whole story. Perhaps it will be easier to digest the complexities of this story once it comes out.

 

Joanne Chuvalo runs a Facebook group dedicated to finding and bringing George home. The group link is here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1538877719514004/

 

I don't like this announcement any more than you do. I figured that I would post it because boxing fans would like to know what he's going through. If you read the Toronto Star article, it discusses the results his medical examinations quite thoroughly. Worth a read if you're a fan. Lots of issues (e.g. getting lost while driving, not knowing where he lives, not understanding the nature of the divorce proceeding his children filed, etc.) are brought up. Him and his wife were seeking treatment for quite a while before he was abducted. His decline appears to be accelerating now, unfortunately. You can read it here: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/11/03/the-fight-over-boxing-legend-george-chuvalo.html

 

@travolt That same physician, Dr. Schulman, who initially said that George showed no signs of dementia, went back on everything he said after that article came out. In late 2017, he published a new report that says Geroge lacks capacity to understand the nature of the proceedings; that he lacks capacity to instruct counsel, etc. That's why George's children and their lawyer were booted out of the case - all physicians were in agreement that George lacked capacity to instruct a lawyer. In other words, no attorney had any business holding themselves out as George's attorney. This article discusses Dr. Shulman's change of tune. It also discusses Justice Kiteley's decision to not honor George's simple desire to return back to the home he was taken from.