“I realize that few phenomena are more tiresome than people of my age, and older, grimly lamenting the decline and fall of almost everything… (Conrad Black, Editorial in “Ideas”, National Post, July 13, 2013)

A decade back, Conrad Black and I were infrequently on the same page. That has changed. In recent years it seems this deeply conservative man has experienced somewhat of an epiphany, perhaps the result of having spent the better part of half the past decade as a guest of the US prison authorities. From reading his frequent comments, it seems he came to realize that many of his fellow prisoners, more than a few of which were lifers, presented far less danger to American society than a good many of the Bay Street and Wall Street Traders who were likely to be his associates in earlier years.

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The MacLeish Chronicles takes place in the Municipality of Oak Bay, a small residential area in the Southeast corner of the Captial Region of British Columbia, a community where Detective Sergeant MacLeish and his partner, Detective Bard, pursued a felon whose attention to detail in the perfecting his craft drew the admiration of his pursuers on both sides of the border.

Introduction to the Series

The MacLeish Chronicles focuses on criminal and other events investigated by the Oak Bay Police Department a force of some thirty regular and civilian members. The series departs from the structure of the other stories in the Police Notebook Series, in that in the Chronicles Series the names of the characters have been changed and each story is written in the form of a novel.

The series, as in other stories about the Department, continues to bring into focus underlying social, ethical and legal issues faced by police as they not only pursue wrongdoers but, just as importantly, assist citizens who have found themselves facing challenges of one sort or another. 

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Part 1 The Night Stalker
A Matter of Principle

Chapter 1 A Professional at Work

Shortly after 1:00 am Sunday, Larry Doncaster parked his rented Toyota Corolla just off Uplands Road north of Lansdowne, stepped from the car and scanned the street. Barely discernable among the hundreds of Garry Oaks, blooming Azaleas and Rhododendrons, were sprawling homes holding the promise of another easy payday.

The silence was occasionally broken by the hum of a distant car and when clouds obscured the moon, only a soft glow from the globed, ornamental street lamps penetrated the darkness – ideal conditions for a night stalker. A master burglar, Doncaster could disappear in a split second, his expertise honed to perfection while fighting in the war torn jungles of Viet Nam.

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Photo (Web):  The surveillance van we used was equipped with all the latest equipment including Night Vision Binoculars.

Part 2, End Game, It’s Never Simple

Chapter 9 The Trap

Bard was up early Sunday, made contact with John, and then contacted MacLeish who by this time had taken the surveillance van back to the police office. They met at the office and drove to the Sears Mall to make the noon meet.

Again, John looked dreadfully hung over, so Bard came right to the point.

“Ok, we checked your information and it squares. We need to catch Larry in possession of stolen property, preferably silverware or something similar. You need to get to work and make it happen. As long as you hold up your end of the bargain – we keep you clean.”

“Listen, I’m really scared…”

MacLeish cut him off: “Enough bullshit Milligan, you know your options. Now fucking get it done or we exercise our options.”

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Most Recent at Top

(Gaps in Editorials over time indicate I was likely busy writing stories in other sections)

2019

Posts on The 2019 Election

Is Fiscal Conservatism Dead

Left or Right: Is there a difference?

How to Game and Election

The SNC Lavalin Affair

The Kings of Conservative Media

The Changing Landscape of Politics in Canada

 

The past as a guide to the future (Part III): Over the past 60 years, many activities the police once performed as a natural part of their daily duty, eventually became incompatible with achieving their basic goals. What happened? (August 2019)

Comparing Differing Police Cultures (Part II):  What causes police departments in a close geographic area, begin to diverge in their culture. (July 2019)

Police Solidarity and the Push for Amalgamation (Part I):  The first of a four-part series on policing in the Capital Region of B.C. This part reviews a history of the local forces back to 1964.  (July 2019)

Canada, that which makes us one:  A Ukrainian dinner, coffee at Tim Horton’s or McDonald’s, and eating a meal at one of the many ethnic restaurants within three blocks of our home. It all adds up to who we are as Canadians.

2018

Our City: The Capital Regional District. Did you know British Columbia is the only Province in Canada where the cities, towns, municipalities, and unorganized territories, underwent amalgamation over 50 years ago? Over five years beginning in 1965, it was the most extensive series of amalgamations in the history of Canada, and it was unique in that constituent members retained the power to oversee a sizeable portion of their internal affairs. It was the best of both worlds and to this day remains a model for managing the affairs of politically and geographically diverse communities across British Columbia.

The Changing Landscape of Politics in Canada  It all began in England (as all things do), it arrived in Canada when a young man from Victoria decided to work on an election campaign and it ended with an algorithm of sufficient strength to change the way we think.

Are Insurance Rates Soaring Across BC?   If you are a Conservative business person and a government-mandated business holds the reins of the insurance business in BC, you need to find a way to change that.  The best way to do that is to try and convince everyone the government-run business (a Crown Corporation) is costing everyone a ton of extra money.  It turns out that’s not true, that BC has the best auto insurance rates in Canada.

Church and State  How does Canada attempt to keep the Church and State in separate corners?  To see how important this is, all we need do is look at countries where the church is in bed with the state.  In the United States, it is almost impossible to get elected unless you openly express allegiance to God, even though the Constitution expressly states the two must remain separate.

R. vs Stanley: Saskatchewan Court of the Queens Bench:  So, you think justice is blind and that a trial by our peers is not affected by political imperatives?  Well, read on.

2017

Intervention, the key to fighting crime: The RCMP have beefed up their efforts to identify and intervene where it is believed a young person is being drawn into a life of crime.  An Assistant Commissioner in the RCMP states this is the only way to reduce the risk of young people becoming involved in a life of violent crime. (June 2017)

Creating People Friendly Communities:  Is it possible to create people-friendly communities?  Of course, it is, but in order to do so there will need to be a move away from cars and our city and town planning departments will need to look more closely at how people-friendly communities are created and maintained.

Illegal Aliens intercepted in Sarnia:  It was a busy day for the Police and Security Service personnel as hundreds of illegal aliens from the United States made a dash for Canada.

Keep the peace and be of good behaviour:  Why is it our government and security agencies continue to push millions of dollars towards mitigating the minimal danger posed by would-be home-grown terrorists and completely overlook the far greater danger posed by homegrown criminals and gangs.

Brexit: How a minority took over a country:   51% voted to leave the EU, 49% voted to stay, but did those numbers actually reflect what Britain, Scotland, Ireland and Wales really wanted?

2015

Visions of the World   This is a follow-up post to the attack in Charleston, South Carolina.  Why does the United States and Canada give domestic terrorist organizations that are white based a free pass? An earlier post of this appeared on Facebook in early 2014.

Oversight of Police and Security Services:  A look at Bill 51 from the perspective of a Police Sergeant who was present during the FLQ Crisis that gripped Canada in 1970 and how oversight of the RCMP Security Service failed badly. What lessons can be learne?. (October 15, 2015)

Advocating Terror to Become a Crime:  While ISIS style terrorism dominates the news, Criminal Gangs and Lone Wolves of the Criminal sort pose a far greater danger to Canadians at home.  The Criminal Law as it presently exists provides police and Security Services with plenty of tools to defeat those who would disrupt our society without adding dozens of terror related bills that will make things worse rather than better. (January 20, 2015)

To Live or Die: Some Hard Decisions:  Can Assisted Suicide be managed in a way that will protect the vulnerable?  This is another of those very difficult decisions that face Canada.  The life of a world renewed scientist, Dr. Stephan Hawkings, is used as an example. (February 9, 2015)

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Tag along on this Blog and the McNeill Life Stories Facebook as Garth, Esther, Lynn and Harold embark upon a new adventure that extends from Barcelona, Spain to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
It seems a few hardy souls have backed away from this voyage into antiquity because of perceived dangers, but their choice was our good fortune. Our research suggests most parts of the Middle East is as safe to explore as most other travel destinations, including our friendly neighbour south of the ‘forty-ninth’, the United States of America.

Exploring the Empires of Antiquity

After departing Victoria on November 9, we kick things off in Spain by spending several days becoming acclimatized to the seasonal average temperature of 22 – 26 C. (a little warm for Canadians, but we shall persevere). After savouring the sites, sounds and wines (we have long since learned that wine helps one to acclimatize) of Barcelona, we then join the Oceania Liner  “Nautica” for a 24 day of cruise that will see us meandering across the Mediterranean with stops in Italy and, after passing through the Strait of Messina and crossing the Ionian Sea, will check out Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus.   

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“For goodness sakes” (mom’s saying), the Times Colonist, (as reported by columnist Jack Knox) choose not print a copy of the the Duffy Dollar cartoon after another Canadian newspaper apparently received a written warning from the Bank of Canada advising it was against the law to publish images of fake Canadian bills.

Now, if the Times Colonist is so meek they can be cowed by such a mindless threat, it makes one wonder how they might handle a real exposé involving influential political or business persons suspected of wrong doing if those persons threatened with a law suit.

As far as this fake bill is concerned, it is hard to image that someone might be fooled into believing it is real. If that was the case, I know of an awesome second hand bridge on the Interstate 5 in Washington State, just south of the US-Canada boarder, that is up for sale. $90,000 might do the trick.

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But then again, one man got it right…

Leading up to the recent BC election I was reading a book by Nate Silver, “The Signal and the Noise – Why so many predictions fail – but some don’t. The book provides an excellent outline on a variety of prediction issues.  After reading a good portion of the book and then seeing how badly the mainstream pollsters failed, it made wonder if they had obtained their results using outmoded methods. CEOs of the polling companies, when interviewed on TV, dodged and weaved as they tried to explain the inexplicable results. It seems their margin of error was something in the order of (+) or (-) 100%, 20 times out of 20.

Following the election I continued the book, then happened upon an article posted on the CBC BC News  web site about one pollster, Dimitri Pantazopoulos, who got it (the BC election) almost bang on. Working behind the scenes for the Liberal Party, he confidently projected a Liberal win of at least 48 seats. An outline of his work was covered in a number of other media reports.

Mr.Pantazopoulos had been hired early on in the election to give the Liberals a realistic assessment of their chances as they were not thrilled (an understatement) with the mainstream polls whose results (predicting an NDP landslide) seemed to fly in the face of what they were hearing on the ground. Pantazopoulos’s information, which provided a much different story, was shared only among party insiders and candidates involved in close contests (where most of the polling took place).

Two weeks out from election day, the party machine kicked into overdrive and drove hard to the finish line. This included several hard hitting ads targeting Dix and the NDP party platform.

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