Water

Chilliwack is swimming. Well, at least Greendale is, basically the west side of the city. The hills are sliding into the valley. There is water everywhere and I'm sure someone in this town is literally thinking about, if not building an ark, the apocalypse.

We had a record snowpack on Monday and then back-to-back record days of rain and, presto, water, water everywhere. Not surprising really given we are on a flood plain surrounded by rivers, lakes, streams, sloughs, and ditches. All of which are at their peak and some of which are overflowing into basements and living rooms.

Mike is away so I'm basically alone with all the news and my usual Friday arts section so I was feeling a little swamped today . . . pardon the pun. And of course then the Sun and the Province want Chilliwack photos so I'm filing for them as well. In fact the Sun took my story today and, I just noticed, along with some changes have posted it on their site.

The Sun also used one of my photos six columns wide today along with a small one underneath, which is kind of cool (although they used some that weren't as good on-line). Even the National Post used one of the photos at least on-line to go with a flood story. Ironic that after all the flood stories I did in the massive scare last year nothing ever happened. And then snow and rain caused a real flood in three days and the big guys come calling for help.

Oh well, better too much news than not enough and better the big guys come calling than forget we exist.

Think I'll go chase some water tomorrow.

Giddyup 2009

OK, here we go. A new year and that means some changes. Went for a brief run today, the first in a series to get back and shape and train for the Sun Run.

But writing too. I want to re-ignite this blog if for no other reason than for the discipline of articulating my thoughts every day. Maybe not every day, but as often as possible, at least once a week.

So 2008 is in the books and 2009 begins. Last year saw a lot of drama in Chilliwack and I foresee a lot more for 2009. I need to go through my stuff from the last year this week to submit for the Ma Murray community newspaper awards. I think I have some potential stuff, but then again I thought that last year and got zilch.

For one thing, I wrote a column in early December that I think was a good one. Likely my best of the year. I think I'll paste it here below.

Let the writing begin . . . or continue at least.

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Pickton was no 'serial killer'

Paul J. Henderson, The Chilliwack Times
Friday, December 12, 2008

Women had been disappearing for years from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside before the Vancouver Police Department really started to look for a killer.

It didn't take a detective to figure it out, but the police and the elite of the city had another threat to combat.
Sure, woman after woman was listed as missing by family and friends, but because of their addresses, their occupations and their addictions, the wealthy didn't care.

Missing women? What missing women?

Yet when a string of garages were robbed the police sprung into action; a $100,000 reward was offered for information leading to the arrest of the criminal who had been stealing mountain bikes and lawn mowers from the wealthiest residents in Shaughnessy.

It was the late 1990s, long before the jury in the Robert Willie Pickton would deliberate on his guilt or innocence in the murder of six of those missing women who, in the words of then-mayor Phillip Owen, would probably turn up in Calgary or Seattle or Portland.

I was in journalism school over the winter of 1998-1999, learning the ins and outs of covering the news, talking to politicians and dealing with media spokespeople. We had a field trip one day down to Vancouver Police headquarters to the media room where our class met with the then-ubiquitous Const. Anne Drennan.

Drennan was a familiar face in Vancouver in those days as she was on the news almost daily telling TV viewers about the crime du jour. I remember distinctly on the walls of the media room photograph after photograph of women families and friends had reported missing. Most of them looked rough after years of drug use, prostitution and hard living on the streets of the Downtown Eastside. Yet they were people, and they were missing.

There also was a poster advertising a $100,000 reward for the Shaughnessy garage robbers. One of those in my class, and I can't remember who, asked Const. Drennan why there would be a reward for the garage thieves and not for whoever was responsible for the missing women.

She gave a less than satisfactory response and more hardened reporters would have pounced I am sure, but still, those of us rookies in that room were confused by the juxtaposition. I personally was angered at the opulence of a reward provided by taxpayers to stop someone robbing rich people, while dozens of women were gone with little police effort being invested to find them.

It is almost a cliché to say it now, but it is so true that if even two or three daughters of Shaughnessy had gone missing an integrated task force would have been created and the search for the killer would have been relenteless.

But not for the "junkie scum" as at least one of those missing women knew they were viewed as by the likes of Owen and Drennan.

It didn't take a genius to see this might be the work of a serial killer, and while applying hindsight is arguably unfair to the police in this case, it did seem obvious. By the end of 1999 there were 60 women missing, almost all since the mid-1990s. No similar situations were happening in Calgary, Toronto or Montreal, yet Mayor Phillip Owen insisted on assuming these women just moved or were on vacation.

Keep focused on the missing lawn mowers.

But what I will never forget about that visit to Vancouver Police headquarters was when one of our group pursued the question, not with the force and authority of a Kim Bolan or a Terry Milewski, but as a humble J-school student, just wondering, why in the world do the police not see what is happening and put out a reward at least equal to the garage robbers? Well, the steely-faced Const. Anne Drennan angrily barked back at us, "This is not a serial killer!"

I wonder if they ever did catch that garage robber. I hope Shaughnessy is safe again.