Photo (2014): Winter Storm Watch in Tofino, British Columbia
An avid West Coast and Prairie Explorer, there are few parts of Western Canada that
Harold has not touched by land, sea, or air. Many dozens of these adventures with
family, friends, work, and volunteerism, are chronicled on this blog and in hundreds of Facebook posts.
Most of the stories are now being rewritten, proofed, and published in book form (see Appendix A)

Harold was born in 1941 and started life on his parent’s homestead in Northwest Saskatchewan where he was surrounded by a wider family circle who immigrated to Canada from the United States in the early 1900s. In his early teens, the family settled in Cold Lake, Alberta, where Harold became interested in flying bush planes as they were still in regular use throughout the area and next door was the largest airforce training base in Canada, RCAF Station Cold Lake. During his High School years, along with his best friend, Aaron Pinsky, the boys worked part-time filleting fish at a packing plant owned by Aaron’s dad. As Aaron’s dad also leased a number of aircraft to haul fish from northern lakes, the boys picked up a lot of ad hoc flying time while assisting the regular pilots in loading and unloading airplanes as well as prepping the float or ski equipped aircraft for flight.

After Harold landed his first major job as a Crash Rescue Fireman with the United States Air Force Strategic Air Command based at Cold Lake, he also began flying training at the RCAF Station Flying Club were he was surrounded by the latest fighter jets and bombers that arrived from around the world for all-weather training. It was a crazy time when the world teetered at the edge of a nuclear apocalypse during the Cold War. After gaining his private pilots licence and float endorsement, he began flying as pilot in command on many of the aircraft on which he worked during his high school years. He later earned his Commercial Pilots Licence and one of the bush planes he flew, CF-AXL, holds special memories as it is now housed in the National Air and Space Museum in Ottawa.

Photo: This photo of an Oil Painting of CF-AXL graced the cover of the Canadian Aviation Historical Society’s 2000 Edition. Built in the 1930s, the aircraft was taken out of production in the early 1940s so the Fairchild Aircraft Company could concentrate on building bombers for World War II.

When the US Air Force closed their operations in Canada, Harold was transferred to Victoria where he spent a year and a half with the Dockyard Fire Department while serving at locations around the Lower Island (Dockyard, Naden, Belmont Park, and Victoria Airport). Finding work in a navy oriented system was not to his liking, he shopped around for flying jobs and opportunities that did arrive would take him back to remote communities in British Columbia. As he like living in a city after spending most all his life in the wilderness, he encouraged to join the police by a friend in the RCMP. After joining the Oak Bay Police in late 1964, he was among the first troop of recruits from Victoria, Oak Bay, and Esquimalt Departments, to attend the Vancouver Police Training Academy. As he thoroughly enjoyed police work, he decided to stay with Oak Bay  rather than head north continue flying. Flying then became a leisure time activity as he flew family and friends on site sight-seeing trips.

In the police, he became a highly respected career police officer (now retired) and, over the course of his thirty year career, participated in dozens of high-profile cases in cooperation with police agencies across British Columbia and Western Canada. Mid-career, he earned a BSc at the University of Victoria, and later spent two years studying police administrative systems in Greater Victoria and across the Lower Mainland, as well as assisting in various studies related to policing activities (12-hour shift and other administrative, and operational systems). He wrote the first Operations Manual for the Oak Bay Police.

After retirement, he followed a volunteer path where he became deeply involved in the administration of sports at the local, provincial, national, and international level. Over a fifteen-year period he wrote Constitution and Bylaw documents for various organizations as well as Operational Manuals for Layritz Little League, Prospect Lake Soccer, Lower Island Soccer, British Columbia Soccer and other organizations. In a twist of fate, and along with others, he was instrumental in helping to merge the Lower Islands Boy’s Soccer with Lower Island Girls. With eleven clubs in the Lower Island (from Cowichan South), the new system worked almost exactly the same as the Capital Regional District system in Lower Island.

His contributions for outstanding service have been recognized with awards from the Greater Victoria Hospital Society (1994), the City of Victoria Mayor’s Commendation (2007), and the Rotary Club’s Certificate of Recognition (2008). In recognition of his contributions to the world of sport, he was a recipient of the BC Soccer Association’s (BCSA) Award of Merit (2004), the Lower Island Soccer Association Presidents Award for Excellence (2006), and was named Greater Victoria Sportsman of the Year Award (2005) by the Victoria Sports Council.

He and his team of volunteers were instrumental in securing many prestigious events for the region including Group C of the 2002 U19 Women’s World Championship, Group B of the 2002 CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup, Group B of the 2003 CONCACAF Men’s U17 World Tournament, and Group F of the 2007 Men’s U20 World Cup. He served several terms as Secretary to the Lower Island Soccer Association, then terms as Director and First Vice-President with the BC Soccer Association (2005-2009). Together with his wife, Lynn, he helped to promote the 2009 BC Scotties Tournament of Hearts across BC, and, in the following year, the couple were Team Leaders while hosting in the Athletes Village at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Whistler.

Over the years, Harold continued in-depth study and writing on policing, politics, travel, and issues related to the amalgamation debate within the Capital Region and across Canada. He brings his extensive lived experience and broad perspective to dozens of stories written over the past thirty years, many of which are posted (in rough form). The following stories are currently being transformed to books.

BOOKS BY H. D. MCNEILL

 The Grayson Chronicles (Published January 4, 2025): Now available on Kindle Direct Publishing:

A five-year-old boy tells the story of a month-long camping trip with his grandfather as they visit the places of his grandfather’s youth in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Along the way, they meet dozens of relatives as they work their way past mosquitoes as large as dragonflies and listen and watch as giant thunder and lightning storms roll across the prairies, creating flash floods that wash out highways and byways. They meet killer trucks in Alberta that hate BC licence plates, and that try to give the older drivers who intrude upon their highways, a heart attack. In Saskatchewan, they meet buffalo the size of our trailer, and gigantic round bales of hay that, once set in motion by a tornado, could flatten a town. It was also a time of falling in love and the crushing hurt of being left behind for someone else.

The Amalgamation Debate in the Capital Region (With Perspectives from Across Canada) (Publish Summer 2025)

The information contained in this handbook was distilled from a substantial number of articles written over the past decade about amalgamation, a topic that has been circulating within our communities for the past 50 years. Some may not realize that, in the 1960s, the British Columbia Government under the leadership of W.A.C. Bennet, undertook the largest series of amalgamations in the history of Canada. These amalgamations had been years in the planning, as discussions took place in cities, towns, municipalities, and electoral areas across the Province. The Capital Regional District (CRD) comprising South Vancouver Island was the first off the mark to test the system in 1965. Over the following five years, 28 other districts were established.

An Ancestral Journey: The McNeills, Wheelers & Descendants (Two Volumes – Publish early 2025)

Volume 1. Sails And Trails West (1500 – 1800)

In this volume, we take up the first part of our direct family history from the late 1500s while family members were living in England and Northern Ireland. We seek to place these family histories within the context of the major events (political, economic, and religious)  that defined each century in which they lived – first in the old world and then in the new. After migrating to North America, we follow the families through the immense challenges they faced as they scratched out a hand-to-mouth existence on raw land – the Wheelers in Massachusetts and Canada, and the McNeills and Elliots in Virginia, territories in the South, Dakota territory, and Canada.

Within each decade, we also trace the fate of the indigenous peoples as they sought to resist being overwhelmed by the influx of Europeans. We see the vast difference between what the future held for the indigenous peoples of the United States vs. those of the Northern Territories in a nation that came to be called Canada. Throughout the centuries, we follow the fate of the African slaves whose history parallels the dreadful path along which the indigenous peoples were propelled. Within those paths, we see the threads of historic events that lead Canada to become very different country socially, politically and religiously, from that of the United States.

Volume 2. Trails North And West (1800 – 1960)

This more recent history provides greater firsthand detail of the Wheelers, McNeills, Elliots, and related family lines, based on an abundance of firsthand writings and photos that traced their lives from Michigan (Wheelers) and South Dakota (McNeills) to Canada in the late 1800s. The path followed by the Elliots is less clear as there were fewer firsthand accounts; however, information discovered about other parts of the Elliot clan could easily apply to our own, based on inference of location origins in Northern Ireland and the United States.

After the three family groups moved to Western Canada in 1910, a wealth of available information has allowed the author to follow each family through the first sixty years of the 1900s – a family history that mirrored that of thousands of migrants who settled, then re-settled, in Western Canada. The final pages are dedicated to a snapshot biography of each of the 21 children of our grandparents, including the names of their children.

Flying, Fire, and Police: The Career Stories of Harold David McNeill (1960 – 1994) (Publish Summer 2025)

From the bush planes of the far north to the warplanes of the Cold War, author Harold David McNeill lived the dream of many young men. He had the good fortune of coming of age following World War II and graduated from Cold Lake High School, Alberta, in 1960. After completing a stint as a Crash Rescue Fireman at the US Air Force Base near CFB Cold Lake and earning his private pilot’s licence, he flew float- and ski-equipped aircraft while hauling fish from remote lakes in northeast Alberta. Later, after being transferred to the Dockyard Fire Department in Esquimalt, BC, he completed basic training at the Vancouver Police Academy and subsequently joined the Oak Bay Police Department. During his early police career he also gained his commercial pilot’s licence at the Victoria Flying Club.

While life as a Detective Sergeant with Oak Bay Police involved considerable community service, criminal matters often occupied days, weeks and months in methodical and often complex investigations; several of these cases attained national and international coverage and remain in the news to this day (e.g. the Telesford Case). On the community side, Oak Bay provided a unique opportunity to become deeply involved in school and community programs where a “no call too small” philosophy made policing satisfying in many ways. This book contains dozens of case studies, notes and evidence lists from initial investigation to arrest, trial and conviction. Among the cases are many colourful characters whose antics made a lasting impression on the investigating officers.

Police, Politics, and Religion (Publish Spring 2026)
In this book, an ongoing series of discussions about matters of local, provincial, and national interest is used to pinpoint the need for all organizations and police officers to direct their duty toward the common good rather than self-interest. But one example, is an editorial on why police are often responsible for restrictions being placed on their investigative methods, and why police bias against many victims can lead to tragic outcomes.

The World Cup Years (1996 – 2009) (Publish Summer 2026)

Even though soccer is the most popular sport in terms of numbers among Canadian youth, it still lags in the professional field. Within Canada, we have the National Women’s Team to thank for putting Canada in the international spotlight in a manner that has propelled the sport into a new era of popularity around the world. Over a period of fifteen years, the author became deeply involved in the administration of soccer as well as the presentation of competitions at the local, provincial, national, and international levels.

World Travel Stories (1995 – 2020) (Publish 2027)

Only in retirement, at age 53, did national and world travel become a regular feature of life for the author. Out of these trips came dozens of stories about life in other parts of the world and why we should be thankful to live in Canada. It was also a time of learning, as each story is backed by research into the history and current issues of the countries visited.

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Kari’s Birthday Celebration

Kari’s Birthday Slideshow

Photos

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Lynn sketched this welcoming sign

October 31, 2022

Over the course of the afternoon and evening we received a hoard of kids and adults (estimated at 150-200), all in a variety of great costumes. To get to the treats, they had to travel through the yard to reach the front door where they were greeted by a “schoolmarm” who questioned them about “have you completed you homework?” to which she was given all manner of answers (mostly yes, as they knew that likely meant an immediate treat). For the younger ones, perhaps intimidated by the sights and sounds, mom or dad supplied a reassuring hand to the front door. It was fortunate we purchased all those extra treats as by 8:45 the well was dry.

This was “Year 1” of expanding the Halloween scene to the full front and side yard.  The whole family, including Jay and Jeff, Avery, Lynn, shared in creating many of the new caricatures and ghostly scenes.  For some supplies Jay and I made a couple of trips to the Salvation Army on Quadra where we collected costumes and masks as well as other miscellaneous articles used for the various scenes. At home we used straw to stuff the body costumes, with the pumpkin heads being attached to a small shoulder board before being attached to a support pole driven into the ground.

To hold the black pumpkin ghosts, we used the same method to attach the pumpkin head, then placed the head over an inverted wire garden trellis (we forced the three wires into the bottom of the pumpkin, then rolled down a heavy-duty black plastic garbage bag. The inverted trellis was pushed down over a large, inverted plastic plant pot (photo description in the album). For the white ghosts we attached a stiff wire circle to a shoulder board and secured the wire head with two screws. We then folded over white sheets (purchased from the Salvation Army).

We completed the night scene by placing red, white, and yellow bulbs of various sizes in and around the scenes.  This gave the entire yard an eerie feel when accompanied by Halloween music found on YouTube and played moderately loud on the external trailer speakers.

As you might guess from the scenes, over the summer and fall, the front yard was transformed into a summer camp spot for family and guests, complete with trailer, gas campfire and BBQ, swings, swing ropes, sandbox (the Pirate Ship), a well as a tree house and lookout tower attached to a 30-foot slack line.

We rather expect this will become an annual practice back by popular demand.

Link Here to Facebook Photo Album

Cheers,

The McNeill’s

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While two of these five leaders have lost their job since the last election, our democracy remains strong because leaders can only lead as long as they are supported first by their party and then by Canadians in an election.  In many countries around the world, leaders remain in power regardless of the wishes of their party or general population.  A danger can arise when domestic and foreign interests seek to undermine our democracy. Although we maintain a solid right to protest, we must all accept some limits on that right. Those limits kick in when they interfere with the rights of the majority

National Post, February 15, 2022

Two excellent articles in the Post today. The first, a joint comment by Peter McKay, a former senior Conservative during the Harper years, and a retired Ottawa Police Chief, Vern White, titled “This is Anarchy. Order must be restored.” The article provides an unequivocal statement that using every means necessary to dismantle this protest is not a strike against democracy; it was a way to preserve it.

Having a senior Conservative thinker and former senior member of the party, taking a solid stand like this, speaks well for the view of the majority of the Conservative Party membership as well as the entire Left side of the political spectrum.The challenge faced by the majority of Conservatives is that the extreme right of their party carries a much louder, in your face, voice. This is clearly demonstrated in the current protests. It’s also a side of the party that attracts extremist groups whose agenda is often far beyond the far-right led by Maxime Bernier and the Peoples Party of Canada.

As we’ve all observed, the moment a centrist Conservative leader emerges (e.g. McKay, Sheer, O’Toole), it’s not long before the loud voice of the extremists takes over. Those groups start a fight that soon leads to those centrist leaders being dumped as “not Conservative enough”. In all this in-fighting, the good news for Canada is that the majority of people in Canada, be they Conservative, Liberal, NDP, Green or Bloc, supports the rule of law and our freedoms in a way that makes Canada a democratic leader in the world along side Australia, New Zealand, and others that have taken a similar stand.  That fact that that Conservatives breath fire and brimstone when speaking about the party in power and its leader, is just the way politicians play the game.  Article in the National Post Article on Press Reader

The second article, Civil Servants, NASA workers among donors, provides background on the hacker who gained access to the US Christian GiveSendGo site that intended to funnel millions into the Ottawa protests. While I generally don’t support ‘hackers’ as they most often gain access for the purpose of enriching themselves, others do it for altruistic purposes, as was done in this case. We all remember the Panama Papers and how those documents provided by Edward Snowden, opened the doors for many countries to chase down money hidden by some of the most powerful “men” in the world.

In the present case all those millions of dollars are now locked away by the hackers and cannot be used by the GoSendGo group.  Further they have placed a scrolling message on the site outlining their aims.  Again, if you have a chance, read the background on the GiveSendGo page. I cannot find a link to the National Post article, so I’ve included a few screenshots. One of the most disgusting and lasting symbols of that extended protest was the way the protestors abused the Canadian Flag as they dragged it through the mud as they cried for “Freedom”.

A few screen shots provided below

Foreign funding of political activism

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Across Canada, the truckers protest is picking up steam.
Please take some time to see who is funding this protest, a fund that now holds $7,000,000. That’ll buy a lot of gas. Also, check which radical group is supporting those truckers and I bet the majority of the truckers have no idea how they are being used.

First, on the subject of vaccines

 In a recent FB Post (an edited copy posted below), I spoke to the issue of the Ottawa-bound truckers who refer to themselves as “Freedom Fighters”. In effect, they want the vaccine mandates dropped because it interferes with their “right” to be free. Before I launch into that subject, I will first clarify my position on vaccine mandates. To be clear, I do not support mandatory vaccinations. There are many folks who have valid medical reasons for not doing so. We have members among our extended family and friends who fall into that category. But, I do not stop there. 

Some folks have deeply held beliefs that cause them to shy away from getting a vaccine (e.g. phobia, fear, religion, family pressure, etc.). If they are being honest, I consider their reasons to be valid. They are no different from conscientious objectors who refused to go to war. The vaccine-hesitant in Canada can most certainly skip the vaccination. Still, they must then live with the restrictions applied to protect our fellow citizens, particularly the unvaccinated who are vulnerable because of a medical condition, and the elderly. However, in order to skip that vaccination, they will face restrictions, some of which will be significant (e.g. loss of work, inability to travel, restrictions on entering many establishments – restaurants, gyms, theatres – and the list goes on).

 

Some years back, I wrote a longer post on vaccines.
(Vaccines and the good old days) 

Now to the subject of “Freedom Fighters”

These Freedom Fighters, be they those in a trucker-convoy or those protesting in front of hospitals, at other public locations, or who force their way into businesses and attack the staff, you get not one ounce of sympathy from me or the majority of Canadians. There may well be a small cost with disrupted supply lines; however, those will be small costs compared to the costs we inflict because of prolonging this pandemic. Take a few minutes find out who is funding this protest? (Truckers Protest)

Tamara Lick and B.J. Dichter of Wexit (Link) fame, are running the GoFundMe page.  There are many other links about how they latch onto the activities of others as a means to raise funds that get filtered through their organization. I’m  pleased to see GoFundMe has at least temporarily frozen the trucking funds. Yet, at the end of the line the WEXIT folks and others who support them, get what they want – discontent.

For the truckers, what is happening appears to be confusion about what ‘rights’ and ‘personal freedoms’ mean. Within a democracy, we certainly have many ‘rights and freedoms as defined in our Charter, but those rights and freedoms are constrained in many ways. Our statute books, along with case law (civil and criminal), could fill a library with books that define those constraints, and they are significant. Without applying many limitations, we could not come close to maintaining a civil society (our democracy).

Part of those constraints revolves around a government (federal, provincial and local) right to help protect people from spreading contagious diseases into which Covid falls. That same thing happened many times in the past when our society faced killer outbreaks of highly infectious viruses. We all have family members in the past (perhaps in the present) who died or suffered lifelong disabilities because of no vaccine or effective treatment. 

No one has a legal “right” to disregard the constraints, and if they do, they may very well suffer consequences beyond a threat to their health. I cannot imagine anyone, other than a select few religious sects, who would deny themselves an invasive treatment if it could save their life or help to give them or someone they love, relief from a debilitating disease.

I appreciate these truckers may think they are fighting for their “rights” and their “freedom” to choose; however, they are doing the opposite. They are no different than anarchists who maintain “a political philosophy and movement that is sceptical of authority and rejects all involuntary, coercive forms of hierarchy.”

 What happens when folks carry their protests beyond reasonable limits is that the building blocks of our democracy are slowly chipped away. One only needs to look south of the border to see how that “beacon of democracy” in the world is teetering on the brink of self-destruction. That country need not be overly worried about what is happening on the Ukrainian border as much as they need to worry about what is happening within their own. We have not yet reached that brink in Canada; however, these truckers and publicly active ‘anti-vaxxers’ are not protecting our democracy. They are damaging it by thinking only about themselves and their interests. I wonder how many people understand the fragile line that divides public and personal rights and freedoms. 

 You may disagree however, don’t think for a minute that it is because the majority of those who are riding on the backs to those truckers are protecting our ‘rights.’ They’re not, and I don’t want them pretending they are protecting mine.

Harold McNeill
Victoria, January 26, 2022

Update: January 27, 2022 @ 3:51pm

I just received this email from the Honourable Leader of the Opposition, Erin O’Toole, along with the following video Link attached.
His flip-flop in this video by now pandering to the extremes of his party, many of whom have more or less taken over the truck convoy, makes it abundantly clear why so many in the party are calling for him to step down.  If everything in Ottawa goes sideways over the week-end and it becomes a Canadian edition of the US January 6 riots (as many in the video’s I’v have watched are calling for), I wonder if the Honourable Leader will follow the lead of another by calling for them to “Stand Down and Standby”.

Considering Mr. O’Toole’s current position on the truckers protest, I appreciated this cartoon.

Update January 28, 2022

Full article on above link to CBC News

This from the Truckers Association

“The vast majority of the Canadian trucking industry is vaccinated with the overall industry vaccination rate among truck drivers closely mirroring that of the general public. Accordingly, most of our nation’s hard-working truck drivers are continuing to move cross-border and domestic freight to ensure our economy continues to function.

The Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA) does not support and strongly disapproves of any protests on public roadways, highways, and bridges. CTA believes such actions – especially those that interfere with public safety – are not how disagreements with government policies should be expressed. Members of the trucking industry who want to publicly express displeasure over government policies can choose to hold an organized, lawful event on Parliament Hill or contact their local MP. What is not acceptable is disrupting the motoring public on highways and commerce at the border.

“The Government of Canada and the United States have now made being vaccinated a requirement to cross the border. This regulation is not changing so, as an industry, we must adapt and comply with this mandate,” said CTA president Stephen Laskowski. “The only way to cross the border, in a commercial truck or any other vehicle, is to get vaccinated.”

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