MARIJUANA WAS GRIST FOR THE MILL

Grow-Op Above Restaurant

For years, there had been stories of marijuana being grown in
Williamsford's finest restaurant. Still, residents were shocked when it
turned out to be true.

The Mill Restaurant had been a fixture in the cottage-country village of
Williamsford for decades. New owners came and went, but the historic
19th-century building turned eatery outlived other restaurants in the rural
area, just south of Owen Sound.

"Many a famous judge has eaten there," said Doug Grace, a local Crown
prosecutor. "The Bruce County Law Association used to have its Christmas
dinners at The Mill."

So nothing seemed amiss when a Swiss man named Robert Frehner moved to town
about 10 years ago and took over management of the old feed mill.

But years later, troubling stories about Williamsford's only fine dining
establishment began to spread among some of the town's 400-odd residents.

Marijuana was being grown upstairs as diners feasted on gourmet meals
prepared by Mr. Frehner, the stories went.

Even the odd person in nearby Allenford, about five kilometres away, heard
those same pot stories.

"But I heard that quite awhile ago and they were just rumours -- you can't
put faith in rumours," said a woman who identified herself only as the
owner of Allenford's Silver Star Drive Inn.

It turns out the rumours were right.

This month, the 66-year-old Mr. Frehner was sentenced to one year in jail
after police this year raided his restaurant, seizing about $425,000 worth
of marijuana and grow equipment valued at $40,000.

This week, Cornelia Laeubli, the man's 26-year-old estranged wife -- a
server at the restaurant and fellow Swiss national -- was given six months'
house arrest for her role in the marijuana cultivation business.

"Everyone was totally surprised," said Bob, the owner of Elliot's Hardware
Store, one of Williamsford's few businesses. "If you made a list of 20
people in town who might do that, he wouldn't make the list.

"I don't even think he came here to run a restaurant. I think he just
wanted a little entertainment for retirement."

Desperation may explain at least part of Mr. Frehner's descent from a
person with no criminal record to pot-growing restaurateur.

A person known only as Mr. Big allegedly offered Mr. Frehner a way to make
some extra money to save his failing business. Ms. Laeubli offered to give
up Mr. Big's identity in exchange for witness protection, but that was
rejected.

When asked if Mr. Big is a major drug dealer in the area, Clayton Conlan,
Ms. Laeubli's lawyer, would only say: "[Growing marijuana] would not be
something new to him."

Mr. Conlan noted that while his client played "a very minor role" in the
operation, her husband didn't exactly come across as a hardened criminal
either.

"Even though he's not my client, I can say he's a sympathetic defendant,"
Mr. Conlan said. "He's got no criminal record, no history with the police,
a fairly upstanding citizen.

"It sounds like he got into this because his business was failing, and he
was offered a quick fix by Mr. Big."

But grow-ops are becoming big business in this patch of Southern Ontario,
about two and a half hours' drive north of Toronto. Shortly after Mr.
Frehner was charged, several Toronto men were arrested in the area with
about $4-million worth of marijuana stuffed into minivans, said Mr. Grace,
who prosecuted the case.

"We think we're being swamped with grow-ops," Mr. Grace said. "There are a
lot of smaller communities around Owen Sound, old country roads, so people
will sometimes buy a place, put up a 'No Trespassing Sign' and grow marijuana."

Mr. Frehner's seized property is now on the market for $300,000. Under his
sentencing agreement, he will hand over $80,000 of any proceeds to the Crown.

Sue Whelan, who runs the nearby Desboro Country Inn, figures someone else
could make the establishment fly, even without pot growing upstairs.

"It's a pretty property, and it had a lot of potential," she said.

But for at least one area woman, who declined to give her name, Mr.
Frehner's absence is no loss for the county.

"To be honest, it was kind of expensive and the food wasn't that good," she
said. "It was always a good place to go before."