Hello Everyone,

The photos contained in this slide show were taken between 1994 and 2019.  The inaugural meeting of the Oak Bay Municipality Retired Employees was held in 1994 at the Imperial Inn (now the Capital City Centre Hotel), at 1961 Douglas Street.

Ruth Milling, who retired as Payroll Clerk in 1991, was the primary organizer of this group and for 25 years was the person who scouted out locations, discussed menus, organized helpers, figured out door prizes and did all the things that make for successful get-togethers.  For that, and so much more, all the Oak Bay Retirees owe her many thanks.  She cared about us while we were employees, and she continues to care about us now.

Patricia Walker
Treasurer (Retired)

Music Credit:  ABBA, I Have a Dream, and, Joan Baez, Forever Young.

The photos in the album were in pretty good shape, however it’s nearly impossible to copy them without losing some quality.  Because we tried to include every photo, some will not be as good as we might have wished.   If anyone has an interest in getting more information on names, please send an email to Patricia or myself.

The blog site on which you are watching this slideshow includes a number of police stories from over the years.  They are included in the index section on the left side.

Regards
Harold McNeill
Oak Bay Police (1964 – 1994)

Email:  harold@mcneillifestories.com

Oak Bay Raeside Cartoons

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What choice in Health Care will be available to you?

“Telus Health” is just one example of how Big Business is moving into the lucrative market of health care as more and more doctors exit the public system in favour of career opportunities in the private system.  Don’t blame the doctors and don’t blame big business.

Update: June 3, 2022

Many will be aware of the challenges posed by a shortage of private practice family doctors. To this point, our family is lucky, we’ve had the same family doctor for thirty years, and our doctor has mentored dozens of young women moving into the medical field. Over the past five years, as she has moved slowly away from full-time practice, she has gradually transferred her practice to young doctors entering the system. As we age, there is a feeling of security in knowing we can turn to those young women at a moment’s notice, either by phone or in person.

Yet, tens of thousands of people in British Columbia and across Canada do not have that same security. Each day, family doctors leave private practice and move to a “fee for service” clinic where doctors can assure timely service and reduced wait times. However, this availability comes at a steep cost to our society. It will not be long before much of our daily health care is transferred to a “for-profit” system similar to that in the United States. If you have the ways and means to enter that system, you can get the best treatment in the world, but if you don’t, you will have no choice but to enter the cash-starved public system. Now is the time to give a boost to the public system.

It’s Time to Protect the Public Health System

Canada’s Healthcare System Explained (Watch) 

This video is of US origin, however it is an interesting perspective from an outsider, particularly one from the United States. There are other equally interesting health care video’s in the series.

1. Canada and Public Health Care

One of the many defining features of Canada is our Public Health Care system. While the system continues to provide high-quality care to a broad cross-section of Canadians (rich and poor), funding cuts have led to longer wait times and other shortfalls in service. This has become particularly evident during the current pandemic as Covid19 patients fill beds normally be set aside for ongoing treatments. (What is happening in our hospitals Ref Part’s 3 and 6)

While trying to balance decreasing budgets, many hospital boards have were forced to.. “contract out services deemed outside the “core mandate” of the hospital system such as food, cleaning and laundry services. Despite extensive complaints about the quality of services they provide, global corporations draw billions of dollars from Canadian hospitals, turning them into conduits for public taxpayer dollars for Wall Street and major stock exchanges. In 2015 alone, one health authority, Vancouver Coastal Health, forked over nearly $35 million to Sodexo, a French food services and facilities management company, amidst rising complaints about the awful food in BC hospitals. One investigative reporter who tried to get information about what was in Sodexo’s food and where it came from was blocked by Coastal Health, which said that the information was subject to the commercial confidentiality clause of its contract with the company.”

Note: August 30, 2021 

Province reverses privatization of cleaning and dietary work in B.C. hospitals

“Health Minister Adrian Dix announced on August 30, that privatized hospital cleaning and dietary workers will be brought back in-house as health authority employees. The Hospital Employees’ Union says the move will help restore fairness and stability in the health care system.” (BC Reverses Privatization)   

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We are all in this together yet there are some hands missing

1. Introduction 

While Canada continues the struggle against Covid-19, it is gratifying to see how Canadians have come forward to help put this challenge behind us. Unfortunately, pockets of resistance remain and that is likely to push the fight into 2022.

The figures for both Canada and United States suggest the strength of our willingness to fight against Covid-19 largely depends upon our political leaning. While there is no hard and fast rule as to how an individual will respond, there appears to be a clear correlation when viewed from a statewide or province-wide perspective. The stark differences between states within the United States and the entire United States compared to Canada is clear. (Chart 1, below provides the specific numbers)

At a current vaccine rate of 1,400,000 doses per 1,000,000, Canada now sits near the top of the world with vaccine doses administered. By contrast, the United States, a country with early and continuing access to the vaccine supply chains, sits nearly dormant at 1,100,000 per 1,000,000. As of September 10th, Canada has almost 78% of our citizens (12 and older) with two doses and 85% with one (link), while the US is just over 55% for two, and 64% for one. The map above reflects data entered for September 4, 2021.

As one result, the US has the worse outcomes in the world in terms of cases and deaths. Brazil, with a Covid19 denier for a president, runs only slightly behind the US. For the US, a clash in political ideologies is the primarily cause. (see World Map). Continued in 5 parts.

Chart I was created for a quick reference of how Canada and Canadian Provinces are doing vs States in the United States. The chart was created using data from reliable online sources. For the United States, the red numbers indicate Democratic governed states, the blue, Republican governed states. For Canada, red shows left-leaning, blue, right-leaning, and black for non-designated in the three northern territories.   Take a few minutes to digest the numbers, particularly the Cases/100T (Column 5) and Deaths/100T (Column 7) as quick reference.  Continued link below:

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Happy 50th Birthday Jay Wesley McNeill

Jay, you are an amazing son, brother, uncle, cousin, and friend to all you have met along your path in life. Along the way you have made their lives richer by demonstrating that challenges are only challenges, they are not limitations.

You have an exceptionally open and caring personality that sees only the best in others no matter what their walk of life or the challenges they may face. As your parents, we have sometimes taken issue with your choices however, over and over, our experience has taught us that your choices are most often the best choices regardless of how we might see them.

Within the extended Davis and McNeill Clans you have certainly made your mark and the ‘Jay Bird’ stories that get told and re-told only bring more warmth and love to the lives you have enriched.  As you enter your fifties, we all want you to know how very proud we are of all that you have accomplished and all that you will accomplish in the second half of your life.

We know, we know, that photo above is from thirty years ago, but we like it so we used it for this post.  In the following slideshow we’ve tried to capture just a few moments in your life.

We love you with all our hearts, Mom and Dad.

Oh, and not to forget, a special thank-you to all those who attended and to Sherry Leigh Williams and the Southbend and Friends band.  Your attendance and their music capped off a fun celebration.

For a big of history on Jay and the challenges he has faced long the path of life, read “The Twenty-First Chromosome”

Jay’s Photo Album

Jay’s Birthday Party at the Mctavish Academy

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Christine McNeill LeClair and her Daddy, Harold

While we have four children, Jay, Kari, Christine and Sean, along with three grandchildren, Grayson, Audrey and Avery, it was my good fortune to have shared a birthday with the youngest daughter, Christine. That birthday bundle arrived in the wee hours of the morning at the Royal Jubilee Hospital.  Happy Birthday, Christine.

Heartfelt thanks to family and friends who phoned, sent texts or posted birthday wishes on Facebook. Many things happened that made this one memorable day, and part of it was due to the Covid.   I’ll take the day one item at a time.

A Surprise Cruise

As many of you are aware, we have a new grand-daughter (now 19 months) and we maintain close contact with Sean and Alysha as we provide intermittent grandparent care (thank you, Avery). When the
three came over today for a birthday lunch, and among other things, Lynn and the kids told me about the frustrating path they had followed in planning for this day.  Their story gave me insight into some of the stress I remember Lynn being under as the travel business crashed in March 2020.

At that time, Lynn had dozens of clients whose trips were cancelled and getting refunds was the order of the day. While most cruise companies and airlines were pretty good, others were only willing to apply future cruise or flight credits. What I did not know, a few dozen ‘clients’ included family and friends who intended to surprise me aboard the Royal Caribbean’s, Oasis of the Sea. Oh well, the best-laid plans, as they say. Now, on to Plan B.

An Island Retreat

Because families were still allowed to gather for events, the smaller family group decided to rent a retreat home on one of the Islands for a family get-away as we have done for past trips.  Alas, towards the end of the year, Covid again intervened, and it was back to the drawing board.  During all this, Mr Clueless had no idea any of this was on the planning books. When we arrived on January 13th, the birthday party had slimmed down to Mom, Dad, Jay, Sean, Alysha and Avery.  Ah, but again, I was in for a surprise.

A Neighbourhood Birthday

During the birthday morning when cleaning up from some of the wind damage caused by the previous overnight storm, I noted birthday wishes pinned to the Christmas tree that is a single remaining item from the array of Christmas street decorations. It was clear someone was-being mischievous.  While on our walk to the park, various neighbours had wished me happy birthday, but just after Sean and Alysha left, more neighbours and a half dozen young kids started gathering out front.  Here is a slideshow with a couple of short video clips. (Harold and Christine’s Birthday)

All physically distanced as per the current rules, they sang happy birthday as the kids came forth with flowers and cards.  It was a touching moment as this neighbourhood (as with the more rural one we lived on when on West Viaduct), is one of close-connection between neighbours. We are also so fortunate to have families with young kids surrounding us, and during this time of Covid, the kids are often on the street and in yards playing.  Our street is back to a time when Sean was a pre-schooler, but now we are the seniors and so lucky to be surrounded by neighbours who care about each other.

A Surprise Gift

As family members know, Lynn often squirrels herself away as she makes handcrafted gifts for
birthdays, Christmas, and other special days or events.  So it was over the past couple of weeks as she carefully crafted a unique aeroplane for Papa Bear – a touch of Around the World in Eighty Days.  The clock base is still being completed but here is the main body of the aeroplane and pilot, all finely crafted from scratch by Lynn. Photos included as soon as the base is complete.

How Does it feel as I start my eighth decade?

I’d say each decade of my life has proven to be even better than the one before. Not only am I surrounded by loving family and friends, but I also wake up each day with an immense number of things I look forward to doing.  My challenge is, how to stuff them all in the time I have left in this amazing world we call home.

Hopefully, the things I do and say over the next decade will help make the world a better place. I also hope my extended family and friends will succeed in keeping things on an even keel in their lives as the world continues to change at a breakneck pace.

Love,

Harold

PS  Thank you to everyone and especially the grandkids and neighbourhood kids: Grayson, Audrey, Avery, Michael, Felix, Clara, Vienna, Jaifa, Zidan, Jahan, Lucia and many others sprinkled through their teens. Each of you and your families makes the world a brighter place.

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The Storming of the White House: Another riot or a planned action?

I originally thought the gathering crowd was similar to others over the past few years whenever Trump made the call. That all began to change when I watched news reports of the harassment of various legislators as they made their way to Washington.

It was certainly a rough ride for Senator Mitt Romney who stood against Trump’s call to overturn the election. Then watching Trump and Guiliani along with Trump family members and noteable Republicans urging on the crown, I changed my mind. It now seems overwhelmingly likely it was in fact an attempted coup, not just poor judgment on the part of a group of ill-tempered Trumpsters.

On a FB Post, I intended to add a series of photos of the invasion of the White House by the Proud Boys, White Supremacists and sundry others. FB stopped that plan, advising my photos did not meet “community standards”. I continued searching for photos and videos of the live-action and the more I’ve watched it seems clear that key elements of the invasion where dead set on taking hostages if not killing key people.

This was not just another riot as we’ve seen happen in several states over the past few months, it was a deliberately staged event designed to prevent the House from confirming Biden’s election as President.  Granted, there were likely dozens of individuals who were just caught up in the moment as happens in every riot but lurking in the background, there were also dozens of well-trained individuals who appeared to be fully prepared to take hostages and to completely disrupt the order of government in the US Capital.  These folks were well-armed, well trained and capable of doing the bidding of their leader, the President.

We can only hope the saner heads among the US and State authorities will find the ways and means to fully investigate these events and will hold those responsible by laying criminal charges including sedition.  Following is a slideshow of the photos I downloaded and beyond that, I’ve included a few videos by others that reveal what went on inside the White House.

 1. Donald Trump: A Legacy of Lies and Hate

2. MSNBC Report the day after the attack

This follow-up broadcast includes several videos of events inside the White House that captures the full extent of the mayhem and makes clear it amazing that more people weren’t killed or injured.  (MSNBC Link)

3. NDTV Report and Video Clip

A video clip in this report made by Donald Trump Jr., (photo left) at a tented event somewhere outside the White House.  It is abundantly clear from this video that the entire Trump family and several White House Staff along with sundry others were watching at the events unfolded.  In the Donald Jr. clip, he even refers to a countdown towards the time of the invasion.   (Donald Jr. Video Clip, scroll down page)

NOTE: Donald Jr’s voice is slightly out of sink at the beginning but the following video seems to make it clear it was a live view of the Trump event.  Near the end of the video Donld Jr. states something to the effect “it’s only a couple of seconds now….”

NDTV has been rated “India’s Most Trusted TV Media Brand in the TRA Trust Brand Report, India Study 2016. … It was the first time in media history that a media company has been both: Number 1 – India’s most trusted brand across all newspaper and channels, (All India Brand Trust Report 2014 and 2015).”

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An Alberta born farm-girl whose mother was an immigrant of Ukranian descent has made her mark on the world stage and now sits at the centre of power in Ottawa. While this young woman has gained the respect of Canadians and many around the world, why would Albertans choose to forget her? Is it because she’s in the wrong party?

“Chrystia Freeland has put Canadian foreign policy back on track, making Canada a leader on several foreign policy fronts like human rights, security, and working with Canada’s allies to maintain the rule-based order. Despite Canadians self-identifying their government as promoting human rights and democratic freedoms, principled foreign policy has not always been a priority for previous governments.”   (MLI Policy Maker of the Year)

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More photos in the footer 

November 11, 2019:  I brought this post forward from 2015 as we are still seeing far too many negative comments from people who seem to have forgotten many of the men and women who fought and died to preserve our freedoms were from minority communities.  When celebrities in positions of influence do that it is unforgivable.

This is the 2015 post:

I am still seeing far too many FB posts that confuse issues related to September-11th with our celebration of November-11th.  Try to remember the defence of our freedoms during two World Wars was fought by military personnel from countries representing every race and religion around the world and while Canada, then as now, was home to a few who utter racist rants, we need to remember this is 2019, not 1914 or 1939.

It is time for everyone to accept that Canada is a multicultural mosaic where minorities are the norm, not the exception, so let’s stop trying to prove it is otherwise. The following statement is plucked from a Web Site dedicated to the memory of those who served in World War I:

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