GROW-OP FIND DISMAYS FORMER HOMEOWNER

Cobble Hill Property Linked To Legislature Raid Was Once Known As 'Sleepy
Hollow'

It's probably just as well that William Filgate never lived to see his
Cobble Hill house splashed across newspapers and TV.

He built the place on 5.5 hectares with his own hands after returning from
overseas in 1946, raised six children within its walls, and lived there
until his death in 1997. He used to call it "the sleepy hollow," his widow
says.

Now, the little house at 3260 Shawnigan Lake Rd. is linked to a major
scandal involving a former high-ranking official in the B.C. government.

"My husband will be turning over in his grave," Anne Filgate says.

She awoke Sunday to news reports stating that police had raided her former
home in late December and discovered a marijuana grow operation.

The property is now owned by David Basi, a former ministerial assistant to
Finance Minister Gary Collins. Basi's office at the B.C. Legislature was
searched Dec. 28 as part of a 20-month police probe into drugs, organized
crime, police corruption and commercial crime. Basi's lawyer, Chris
Considine, says his client, who purchased the property last March and lives
in Saanich, knew nothing about the grow operation and was the victim of
unscrupulous tenants.

Considine also states that Basi denies wrong-doing of any kind, and expects
to be exonerated.

Filgate kept the house for a few years after her husband died and then sold
it in 2000 to three developers, who sub-divided and resold.

"There was so many break-ins around Shawnigan ... I was nervous staying
there," she says. "So I got out of there when I had a chance to get out."

She has only driven past a few times in the years since, because it made
her sad to see it. There never seemed to be any activity around the place.

"My husband, he built that house," Filgate says. "It was solid. You know,
it was shiplap and it was a solid house.

"So I'm kind of upset. You know, when you build a house from scratch ..
your family's grown there ... That house will have to be torched now, don't
you think so?"

The first Filgate heard of the police raid was last week when one of her
former neighbors phoned to tell her.

"She says: 'Anne, do you know what's happened with your house?'

"I said, 'No, why, did somebody torch it?'

"And she's laughing, and she says, 'No, they're growing marijuana. They've
been raided.'

"I says, 'Oh no!'"

Her former home is referred to in news reports as an "abandoned yellow
house." But Filgate disputes that.

"It wasn't yellow when I sold it," she says, chuckling. "It was cream and
forest green. It might have yellowed from marijuana -- you never know."

Shawnigan Lake realtor Sherry Kayra, who sold the property for Filgate,
knew nothing about the raid until contacted by a reporter Sunday. But upon
consideration, she admitted the place would make an excellent grow-op.

"I could see where that basement part would be great for that," she said.
"It was sort of a sunken basement and there was lots of room down there,
and it would be easy to control the temperature, and it was hidden.

"Poor Anne," she said. "Oh, poor Anne."