September 2, 2014: Make no mistake, the BC Liberals (Liberals in name only) is waging an ideological war on teachers. They are perfectly willing to let the current situation drag on without concern for the welfare of students, parents and teachers.  Unfortunately, the picket lines are helping the government win the battle, not the teachers. Every since the government made that 2002 decision to legislate away a legally binding contract section, they have committed to 12 years of all out war.

Update, September 17, 2014

So glad to see that negotiations seem to be producing some concrete action and that it appears the Government is backing off on E80 as well as tossing in some money toward the class size and composition issue.  It will be interesting to see the final agreement. I do so hope the teachers are able to get back to the classroom.

Update, September 10, 2014

On September 10, 2014, the Times Colonist reported that a group of parents plan to cross the picket line and occupy Lansdowne School (Hillside Ave., in Victoria, BC) on Monday, September 15, at 10:00 am (Families will gather). Crossing a legal picket line is not the answer and I have no idea why they think that will help.  On the contrary, it will be seen as a move against the teachers and if a confrontation occurs (however minor), the media will eat it up and teachers will end up being the losers.

Instead, why not join a group of concerned citizens at the picket line in support of the teachers move towards binding arbitration. To that end you are invited to:

JOIN THE LINE
Location: Lansdowne School
Meet at the corner of Richmond Rd and Lansdowne Rd
Time: 9:30 am on Monday, September 15.

Perhaps the teachers will be able to supply a few ‘Supporter’ signs.  If you cannot make it to Lansdowne, perhaps you would join the teachers at a school near you and advise them you are standing in support of the teachers at Lansdowne who will be facing the occupation of their school.

Everyone is cautioned —  this is to be a peaceful form of support for ending the strike. If any person arrives and is intent on crossing the picket line to occupy the school, they should be freely allowed exercise their right.

Thank you,
Harold McNeill (a retired parent of four)

Continue with Original Post

Note: Part 2 of this post provides a snippet of family history that speaks to the heart of the teachers dispute, that of class size, composition and teacher assistants. Our family worked hard for over three decades to achieve some balance in these matters, both in school and in the adult life of our son. Children and adults with learning disabilities and other issues that seriously affect their well being deserve to be given a bit more consideration rather than thrown under a bus.  Several other articles on this subject appear on this blog, the most recent being Living in the Shadow of Mental Illness and Abducted: The First Twelve Hours.  Both address the challenges of living at the margins of our society.

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February, 2008: Maggie (Corns)(nee Mathews) and her mother June (Beaddie) (Matthews) (nee Heather), share a special moment aboard the Golden Princess.

January 4, 2012:  This post is brought forward for those to two entertaining young woman from England with whom we shared so many laughs.  This post provides some background on recent death of the mother of a dear friend, but it is the last part, and your interest in Colin Firth, which came up in our conversations. Perhaps we shall meet again one day.

What an inspirational day as Lynn and I as travelled to Salt Spring Island, that little gem in Georgia Strait just off the southeast coast of Vancouver Island. We were there to celebrate the life of the mother of our one time next-door neighbour and long time friend Maggie and the grandmother of Maggie’s five children – Alison, Jon, Megan, Dan, Ben. The second youngest, Jon, our son Sean’s school and sports buddy, could not attend as he is currently on course in Singapore while completing a two year stint as an Emergency Room physician in Perth, Australia.

We were most fortunate to have met June a few months earlier when the family, absent Ben on that occasion, were visiting Victoria just before Jon left for Australia.  At ninety-two, June was clearly a going concern until the very end and from the stories we have heard or read, she was truly an inspiration.

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Photo (Web Source).  The dark shadows of depression and mental illness can be lifelong or sudden in onset.  While cancer, heart disease and any one of dozens of other diseases are accepted and treated with respect, not so for depression and mental illness. They remain in the shadows. People experiencing these debilitating states are often cast aside where they are left to their own devices. Many military personnel, indeed, many front line emergency service workers, have felt that pain. Can you imagine a cancer patient being cast aside and left to his or her own devices because of a stigma being attached to cancer?

As numerous families have learned, the nature of the illness makes it difficult to reach out for assistance by either the victim or their family as the attached stigma casts an ugly net. This story continues to track those who have been caught at the margins of our society where failure to provide timely and ongoing assistance can have tragic consequences not only for those immediately affected but also across the mainstream.  

Update:  Times Colonist, February 16, 2020, articles by Louise Dickson, She got her gun back, then she killed herself,” and,  Mounties decision to return gun to PTSD victim haunts her brother. 

Summary: I don’t know how many read the above articles, but they contained the tragic details about young woman, Krista Carle’, who took her own life after suffering for years with PTSD. While tragedies such as this play out across Canada every week, the reason this story resonates so profoundly is that the final, tragic, conclusion took place here in Victoria.

Both articles were carefully researched and written by, Louise Dickson, a TC regular, who has captured the essence of what it means to be cast aside within a system that has every reason to pay close attention – when it’s one of their own.

If we don’t possess the ways and means to help those struggling with mental illness within our own organizations, what possible chance is there for persons found on the street and in obvious need of professional help? These points are vividly brought home by a local police officer who has chosen to speak out rather than remain silent even when, at one point in his career, he faced threats that charges of obstruction could result if he pursued the subject.

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September 5, 2022 Update: It is not the least bit surprising the two victims in this case have sued several levels of government and various individuals as a result of this manufactured case.  Both the Judge who sat on the case as well as the B.C. Supreme Court have confirmed this case as being malfeasance on the part of the RCMP National Security Service members.  The entire case is summarized in the following post written and posted in 2015 during the course of the trial.

The Introduction follows these updates.
This case actually began a full decade back in January 2013

April 24, 2023.  Nuttal and Korody denied access to police undercover agent names.

December 19, 2018. Update:  In a unanimous decision released Wednesday morning, the Appeal Court sided with a B.C. Supreme Court judge who stayed proceedings in the terrorism trial of John Nuttall and Amanda Korody on the grounds that the police investigation was a “travesty of justice.”  Read more background at Entrapment

January 6, 2016 Update:  More information about police misconduct continues to be aired following the conviction of the above couple on terrorist charges.  Read more in the Times Colonist

November 18, 2015 Update:  A BC Supreme Court Judge has ordered the RCMP to release documents related to legal advice they obtained during the investigation of the above couple.  This is part of the hearing related to the subject of misconduct (or entrapment) by the RCMP.  Full report in The Province

June, 2014 Update:  While Nuttall and Korody have been convicted of some charges by the jury in their case, the conviction has not been entered by the Judge pending a “Judge Only” follow-up trial to consider whether ‘entrapment’ played a role in the alleged crime.  Several Mr. Big Operations have been tossed by various Provincial Superior and Appeal Courts in recent years, and in one case that made it to the Supreme Court, the court upheld a lower court decision to toss the conviction.  (Link to Game Changer)

Photo (Web Source): As you read this post consider whether you think John Nuttall and Amanda Korody were latent terrorists just biding their time or whether they were drug induced dreamers targeted to play a lead role in the Government’s War on Terror. After nearly five months of work by a squad of 250 RCMP security personal and with just three days to go before Canada Day 2013, this couple still had no idea they would be planting fake bombs in the bush around the B.C. Legislature.

Also, consider (and compare) as you read this post and the next, linked below, how much could be accomplished if you assigned 250 RCMP members with a multi-million dollar budget and the latest in crime technology to take down some serious criminals who have already committed a crime or a long series of crimes, rather than chasing a couple of potentially dangerous airheads for five months.

(Link here to Part 1: Oversight of Police and Security Services)

(Link here to Part III: Conspiracy to Rob the BC Ferry Terminal at Swartz Bay)

Part II

Conspiracy to Bomb the B.C. Legislature:

Introduction

This post continues the discussion as to whether oversight of police and security services is as important today as it was in the 1970’s. After reading and watching over four-dozen media, video and web reports covering the ongoing trial of Nuttall and Korody, it was astounding to learn of the extremes to which the RCMP Security Service went in order to envelop the couple in a terrorist plot. It was as if we were back in the 1970’s when security agencies could act with impunity when it came to breaking the law. (Oversight of RCMP Security Services).

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Remembrance

The above RCMP Officers, Constable Georges Gevaudan, Constable James Larche and Constable Joseph Ross, were killed by a suspect who has since been arrested. Two other officers were also wounded, but will survive.

Friday, June 5, 2014: (Moncton, N.B. Reported by all Media)

Only this morning (Friday, June 6, 2014)) did I learn of the tragic events in Moncton. Had I known earlier I would not have posted this story when I did. With a police killing, it’s always closer to home, partly because I  spent thirty years as a policeman and partly because police officers represent security in our society.

I have no idea what investigators will turn up in the present case, but at this moment, our hearts go out to all those who were left behind and whose lives will be forever changed. Over the coming days they deserve a measure of freedom from being intruded upon by the second guessing that comes with these events.  In that regard, the posting of the original story that filled this space will be set aside to some future date as the content of this post and another longer post that will follow, speaks to the issues at hand.

Harold

Original Post, June 2, 2014 Victoria, B.C. (Times Colonist Report).

The full post concerning the tragic deaths of these three officers and of many others over the years, is now posted at:
Living in the Shadow of Mental Illness

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May 2014, Late one night Stephen Harper and Peter McKay run away from the Supreme Court…

February 2018 (2018)
For a 2018 update on this subject link here to Church and State

This post will trace the evolution of our secular system of government and attendant public institutions. By remaining fully secular, these organizations allow all Canadians to remain free from religious rule and teachings, yet many are under constant pressure to revert to a more religious based system. It was difficult finding a way of criticizing without the criticisms being seen as a rant rather than a rational discussion. Hopefully, I have succeeded, but suppose that will depend upon the perspective of the reader. 

June 11, 2014: In a significant move BC Lawyers, by a vote of 3210 to 968, directed their benchers to reject an application for accreditation made by Trinity Western University for their new Law School. (Link)

May 15, 2014, 11:00 am. This is an Edited version of the original poster of May 13, 2014, at 12.29 pm.  Mostly cleaning up the structure with some subject matter moved around. There has been no alteration of the original direction and intent of the post.

A smattering of news reports over the past several weeks focuses on the challenges faced in maintaining a balance between competing interests in our pluralistic society. This week, PMO staff found Prime Minister Stephen Harper wandering around kicking chairs and punching walls after the Supreme Court yet again struck down one of his carefully crafted pieces of legislation. Why? It’s largely because we have this Court of Last Resort that we are able to maintain a balance in our society. While the Prime Minister may rant and rave about this ‘activist’ court interfering in the business of Parliament, we should all be thankful it is there to protect our rights in cases where ideologically driven legislation fails to meet the standards set by our Constitution and Charter of Rights.

For his part young Trudeau choose to open Pandora’s Box with his directive about accepting only Pro-Choice candidates (if you please!). It seems Justin, God bless the little guy, has inherited his Daddy’s tendency to ‘never let a sleeping dog lie’, and as for little Stephen, he completely forgot his Mommy’s message about ‘not poking a hornets’ nest with a stick’. These items make for an interesting read, but, standing alone, are just stories about a couple of gifted and privileged boys playing politics in hallowed halls of Ottawa. Neither item would prompt me to write an in-depth post, but the next certainly did as that item, in my opinion, is an emerging challenge to our secular system as found in “The Covenant” issued by Trinity Western University.

Note: June 18, 2014: A recent article regarding issues surrounding the Covenant appears in the Vancouver Sun. Written by a former staff member at TWU, it provides a personal perspective. Link at: “Who would Jesus discriminate against?”

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Early in the 1950’s the largest RCAF Station ever constructed in Canada was taking shape in Alberta. The small, remote, communities of Cold Lake and Grande Centre, that grew ever so slowly over the first fifty years of the century, would be shaken to their foundations as they struggled to come to terms with a massive influx of workers and their families. Our family was one of the many seeking to find their way.

Chapter 2:  The Silent Generation
(Link to Chapter 2, Cold Lake High 1955 -1960)
Link Here for other Family Stories in this Series

THIS STORY IS CURRENTLY BEING PROOFED AND UPDATED

Dear Reader,

For the several months, I struggled with how to write this post about our return to Cold Lake. To this point, it was easy to tell the stories as they were all generally positive. Even though our family was constantly on the move over the twelve years until this story, everything was relatively stable on the home front. All that changed in 1953 after arriving in Cold Lake and it continued in one form or another until our Dad passed away suddenly in 1965. While I will not dwell on the ugly parts, and there were many, I felt compelled to

express the feelings that enveloped me during those tumultuous years as a means to better understand myself and, perhaps, as a message to others.

I rather expect at least a few of my school friends shared similar experiences and might even take solace in knowing they were not alone.  The background to this story is alcohol abuse, but it could easily have been any of a dozen other things that cause family units to fracture – drugs, infidelity, mental illness, etc.  Children and teenagers, in particular, are vulnerable when this happens and need to know they are never alone, that even when things get really bad, the future can still hold a great deal of promise.

Indeed, this will become evident in parts of this post and in subsequent posts through the High School years and beyond. A great many positive things can happen even if life on the home front has spiralled into periods of darkness.

Photo: If taken between October and December 1958, I was seventeen, Louise fourteen, and Dianne four.  Louise remembered our ages as she recognized the skirt as one she sewed in her Grade 9 Home Ec class. Look at Louise for a moment. For those who know her daughter Karena, can you see Karina’s sassy smile and eyes? Looking at clothes, I also remember the day those grey ‘flecked’ dress pants arrived by mail order from Sears.  They became my favourite dress up in High School.  And, as for that sweet, innocent little girl on the right, my heart aches for having completely missed knowing her when she was young. 

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