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B.C. Police

Bob McWhirter

Accession Number Interviewer SSI Historical Society Address
Date January 9, 2002 Location Central Hall
Media tape Audio CD mp3 √
ID 163 Duration

163_McWhirter-Bob_BC-Police.mp3

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09.03.2023

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Unknown Speaker 0:01
to wear a wire. Thanks, Tom for the introduction, and I know that one of the things that really hurts when everybody knows him, look around. I know a few people here. Welcome back. As Tom mentioned, if people were responding for 1950, about the Red Cross your own provincial police person in your town are you operating? They operated for about 90 years provincial police force. And so the basic of the history of the provincial police force making stuff, a little bit of going back to British Columbia. So what I did today is there's a few people here who are either members or abilities or were fired from the course in many ways. I made a little outline of what I'm going to try and see if I can get over that. And basically, what I was going to do is I was going to give an overview of the history where the base pay proper BC and then have some recollections at the end for Global South Korea information because I think that's probably what most people are interested in hearing about the Gulf Islands, leasing, policing, and what happens here. The British Columbia police force was a predates the art of the RCMP or the Northwest mounted police by about 15 years. So it started way back when Jim Henrickson was here in our first meeting in September and gave an overview of the Hudson Bay Company. While the Hudson Bay Company wanted to establish sport Victoria did not have a police force per se, but they were responsible for for general, good order and conduct in this area. Now, if you want to go back even further than that, if the Hudson Bay Company originally had its main Pacific forte, located at what is now Vancouver, Washington event, Port Vancouver. And what had happened was, of course, the California Gold Rush had taken place. And people were moving up into the Oregon valleys looking to settle and to farm, and also to establish their own trading patterns. And the Hudson Bay Company had their main forks up in the northern part of British Columbia, in the New Caledonia region. But they were very, it was very difficult for them to get down to the coast because of the Fraser River so the Columbia River had become the main route down into the lower areas. Now, remember, companies, everyone's different trading companies that did not go out into the field as such, they like the natives to come to them. So here's where they were relocated. That was taught that the Columbia River would not be the boundary between the Canada and the new the United States, but it would be the 49th parallel which would be up in here, or even further north. So the Hudson's Bay Company packed up from Fort Vancouver, went up to Fort Victoria to establish their first trading fork, and they settled in that area. Between 43 and beyond, they started to settle there. And shortly after they arrived in Victoria, and spinal Harbor, the Royal Navy moved their operations from Chile, South America, up to this part of the world because of the changing British territorial claims. Now the Hudson's Bay Company and the British government are not the same thing with we no one's a company which was given a charter but they sort of took over areas and latitude governance. So the Royal Navy established in a spinal harbor and Hudson Bay Company established in Victoria Harbour, and they were side by side in 1849, then Britain decided that they would have to do something to formalize this. So they made this equality Vancouver Island, they have a colony of Britain. James Douglas was the factor chief factor for the Hudson Bay Company in this area, and he became responsible For all of the development of the Hudson Bay products, now the courts became a supplier for the Royal Navy provided them with their coal from the nival. Their wit for their spars became the ship building repair facility, and also became responsible for Verizon and broaden their provisions. So we have this sport sitting here. The Americans down in this area are developing rapidly. Conflict is developing. The California Gold Rush is over. And then in 1858. Ship starting to arrive at Port Victoria, from California with the gold miners, quote I have here says that some estimates but the number 30,009 in 1858, followed by additional 1000s Over the next few years into the fort Victoria area, which was a fort Hudson Bay for maybe 1000 people. So, James Douglas, realized that there were some problems developing here. First of all, he wanted to control and make it a British government situation rather than an American thing. So he banned an advance, he banned the use of weapons. He tried to create a situation so that the current trade would continue to operate without too much interference from from the Gold Rush. But he found that the lawlessness is beginning to take place throughout his areas. So he established a police force in Victoria. And I'll just read through this just for a minute. The police force in Victoria is recognized as the first police force be established in Canada West with the Great Lakes. And they were set up in 1860. And they had 12 Constables, and they were responsible for law and order the region and so they actually would what we would call now, Victoria. They're responsible for the Saanich Peninsula and the brazen Victoria area. They had their original goals and bearings were located in Bastion square I'm sure you remember, you know, Bastion square and Victoria. They were the military style uniforms, and they look similar to the police. The bobbies the old Bobby type uniforms because they were part of the British heritage. They only carried batons, they weren't allowed to carry revolvers. And the main defenses they dealt with were drunk, disorderly assaults, scissors and vagrancy. And also furious driving in public streets and impaired driving a horse and wagon were also a fairly common problem. So that was Victoria in 1860. And some might think it hasn't changed very much. But there are some changes that do take place. So what that's the first police force and that particular police force becomes the forerunners of the British Columbia police force. Another thing James Douglas did when he decided he was going to instill British rule in the colony wasn't he made every every minor registered. And everybody had to come here, sorted for for provisions. This was where you got your provisions before you've had the Fraser River heading to Quenelle. And then he stood there in the Barkerville region, but they were mining and searching for gold all the way up the Fraser River and you can see the phrase rivers mark on that particular map. So they would get provision here, go across through the Gulf Islands to the mainland and then start heading up the rivers. Let's miners Bay our main identification was called miners bay because that was basically one of the halfway points of the miners going through Of course they were rolling most of them or rafting, some sale, working your way through.

Unknown Speaker 9:31
Then in about 1861 The gold commissioners were established by Sir James Douglas. And these were people who were treated decreed to be a gold Commissioner under the auspices of the colony of British Columbia or Vancouver Island, sorry. So each mining town would have The Gold commissioner or each mining region would have a gold commissioner and six constables to enforce the gold mining regulations. And everybody had to have a gold license before they could mine. And they then became the law enforcement agencies of the Goldfields. They took on all the duties of gun Enforcement Rule was was maintained throughout BC, there were very few handed down is allowed in the Goldfields, they were taken away and destroyed. They were also taken away at Victoria, they could carry a rifle for protection. But these men went out into the field of the gold commissioners. And what you would have in each of the mining areas, you would have a gold Commissioner, and you would have a secretary and command. The second in command, often was then appointed as a justice of peace. And so you had your law enforcement agency created and each community based on the gold Commissioner, the justice piece, and five will constables and that was all they were allowed to have. And they were all paid about $30 A month or less for doing this. And they would be responsible for maintaining law and order. They obviously did a fairly good job because the west of western part of British Columbia did not have any of the sort of lawlessness that was associated with the California gold rushes or some of the Southern gold rushes. And they were able to maintain strict control. But one thing that came out of all this that was interesting was because they had all paid a license to the colony of British Columbia. everywhere they went, they were actually operating under the auspices of the colony of British Columbia, Vancouver Island and eventually British Columbia. And they then recognize British law because they did license to to go on. So the British law spread through this whole area. There was no organized governments in this area, this was still open as for training and gold mining situations. Now the Hudson Bay Company was very unhappy with this developers very unhappy with this development. Because settlement, gold rushes and gold mining did not suit the fur trade very well. So that's that's sort of the background of where these people came from. In 1866, then, Fort Langley, established earlier New Westminster was there became a separate colony. So we ended up with two colonies, the colony of Vancouver Island, capital of Victoria, the colony of British Columbia, capital, Fort Langley. And so the two separate colonies existed for a period of time. The movement of gold became a particular problem and also the gold commissioners remember, we paid for the Alexandria they would have its own gold Commissioner, but they would have to move their gold down to Fort Langley sort of a four day stage write down and so they have started to hire people to to protect the stages as they came down and put on armed guards, in other words, and the stage coaches would come down through the brazen panic through the old roads through constructed by the Royal Engineers, and in the Fort Langley, and it became a very prosperous time. And it was very, very rich time. And there was no full time sort of police force involved in all of this. They had all other jobs as well. Occasionally lawless is a breakout murders, and they can understand that they're dealing with a very rough sort of situation. If they need it in reinforcement, they would use Royal Marines from portrait Toria and Portlandia. To do glow, and some of the history of the Gulf Islands this area. Well, later on want to mention one of the books on this region. They were responsible for most of the enforcement of the laws in this area through the marine byways. Let's see what else so okay, that's sort of covers that thicker aspect. So now we have the the BC provincial police set up as a group of informal, not organized. Groups of people spread throughout the western part of Canada. And the RCMP has not been established even at this Stage I think the RCMP has established 1874 And we'll move in from the east in about See, you're going to the Royal Engineers Okay. In about 1855 1858, Chief Justice Matthew Begbie and others were appointed Begbie becomes the provincial judge who is responsible for enforcing judge judgments and rulings and law throughout all British Columbia. And if you want to read an interesting person, an interesting story about an interesting person in British Columbia history begbies A good one to read about. He rode his horse back through that whole whole area, he became the any crime which had a monetary value over $250, or was a capital crime, a murder or something serious like that he was the man responsible to deal with it. And I'll say a bit more about him later on. The first commissioner of police to come into British Columbia was a fella by the name of Bruce, he are Ew, came from Ireland, he was brought over to set up a police force to cover the two colonies. And he was arrived. And his first initial, his first reaction was to try and see what would happen here, how we could how we can police this area. So he wanted to bring over 60 Irish policemen from the Irish constabulary to come over and reestablish them into the various communities. And they would come over and and enforce the laws of Britain turned out, it was too expensive to bring them over, they were making more money in Ireland than they were prepared to pay them over here for one thing. Secondly, they felt that it would be impossible for them to adjust to the conditions here. So they moved instead to system where they started to appoint people into the communities to be the eyes and ears of that community. As far as laws and orders were concerned. And when we get into some of the stories about the Gulf Islands, many people will will have stories about how they work. Or they do people who weren't pleased them, but they had the duties of of reporting to the various place. And so these people work throughout the Gulf Islands, as well as everywhere else. The place then were established. And the knack called the Goldfield Act was formalized. And these took the gold Commissioners and their six people. And they formally and identified them and said they would now be called collectors have revenue. And they would be called police officers. And this is about 1865 6667 their pay would be $25 a day. And they'd have to pay all their expenses. No, I'm sorry, right off the bat. Their pay was $3 a day and they'd have to pay all of their expenses. And the miners were making up to 25 to $50 a day. So often the police would just just go off and join the miners is what what happened, right? Okay, and so they were often left without any police. They had to look for people who wanted to do this. They had the problem of quick use of firearms. And they've tried to curb that they had a great problem with with the influx of people into all of these lands, which were basically native native held lands, ancestral lands. A lot of the problems were dealing with, with people moving into areas where the natives had been established from the beginning, and that was one of the big problems the Hudson Bay Company had around collagen in the north part of Vancouver Island. The police commissioner was also offered to set up

Unknown Speaker 19:30
our justice system and to appoint a law a legal system throughout the province. But all this is done informally. Each unit was separate unto itself. And they were to maintain the peace. All right, and the headquarters for the new police force would be in New Westminster and so that was the first establishment and the first clear definition of law enforcement system was some rules and regulations being set up for people to follow. Again, most of the people were in each of the communities were responsible for their own law enforcement techniques. Now, when you read about that, you'll read that there was quite a bit of violence involved in the enforcement of law. During those days, most of the issues were dealt with quickly and severely right at the time, very few people ever went to jail for commission of crimes 1866 We unite the two colonies. Victoria. So the British Columbia provincial police force which doesn't officially exist yet, are moved to Victoria, their headquarters are set up there, and the local justice of peace, were in power at that time to swear people in in any community to affect the order of law, meaning that if there was a problem, you could go to people and pick them up off the street, and empower them to deal with with the law breakers. This is where the courage and devotion of these people they say is quite remarkable, because in many of these small towns, that would be one, one law enforcement officer and 1000s of miners. And they were, they were responsible for the enforcement of British justice. Most of the miners were used to American justice, so it didn't create some problems. The jail was set up, New Westminster provincial jail established, which eventually becomes Ocala. They're all transmitted prisoners are transported down by armed guard to these goals in New Westminster. And they are they are dealt with by legal processes as they exist. The RCMP or the British Columbia police that officially came into existence in 1871, when Canada joined Confederation, or sort of in BC joined Confederation. The police Act was proclaimed. And all of these people were legalized under one particular statute situation. And they were then put forward into organized British Columbia provincial place. And the provincial police had its own police Act passed. And they had their own responsibilities. Now they dealt basically with the province of British Columbia. The Federal force didn't exist in time, but when it does come into existence, it will be the RCMP or the northbound police. I put this particular slide on just to show you the populations of the time. In 71, there's about 36,000 people living in the area we call British Columbia. And there was about 65 Policemen official per se controlling the areas we know. So that's pretty well, where we are from the police history. 1871 then British Columbia proclaims its police department, British Columbia provincial police as established, commissioners appointed the commissioner makes his headquarters in Victoria. His job then is to train his man set up a situation where there's a certain amount of law enforcement consistency throughout the province, us certain situations of setting up a jailing system, setting up a system of transfer and movement of people and also to enforce the laws of the province. Now the laws of the province were not necessarily the loss of the Dominion, although in many cases, British Columbia provincial police were responsible for dual support based on where their locations were. And also many of them became justice of the peace. So we had a community you could have your justice of the peace, you're a police officer and your federal official all the same person. And so that led to some consistency and enforcement. But it may have led to some inconsistency We're on whether you are guilty or innocent as far as the enforcement of justice was concerned. Then the

Unknown Speaker 25:14
aid in 1921, just about that line to get started with some significant acts started to take place on. In British Columbia one, they changed the driving habits from from the British side, the English side, created some problems. Most of the members of the original RCMP had traveled the country by horseback canoe, paddle automobile was starting to come in. They were in a position that they were able to speed things up. There's a case of if you think back to the map of Cornell, where crime had been committed in Cornell, and the fellow had a three day advanced hike on the on the one member who was trying to travel, and it took five days to get to Vancouver or down into Westminster. And CPR was putting its telegraph through the canyon at the time. And they were having a test run. So he taught them CPR first lineman and through letting him use the telegraph to send down the one noise for the criminal who had left three days earlier. And they caught him as he came out of the out of the Fraser Canyon, the Pope. So that was one of the first examples of water technology being used in law enforcement, I guess. This is the organization in 1939. They formalized it up into divisions, headquarters, Attorney General police administration, and you can see that each area had their own sort of area of responsibility. Now, some people here were later on when he talked about PML, six, but that was the bulk of the station at Ganges for many years. So this outlines the area of the province of British Columbia, and the responsibility now the police station or the police training academy training school, and the commissioner and all of that we're located in Victoria. And if you think of the private buildings, or the government buildings that mean, those buildings on menzi street right behind it are a bunch of low level red brick buildings. Those were all the are all the BC provincial police training facilities, that's where they operated. When they disbanded later on. That all became the drove a motor vehicle branch. Okay, so this is before that. So here we have the organization of the place thing. You notice up in the upper left there is the the bowl system. I'll talk a bit about that. The bowl, bowl and jail system when we get into the Gulf Islands, because we were infamous, we had ours over here as well. 1910 and back a bit the force consists of 286 men. Okay, so 186 men in 1910. So the double from when it been officially proclaimed. In this particular chart and organization, there was about 500 men, no women, the women, there were no women, constables are members of the British Columbia Provincial Police. In most cases, in small towns, expensive spray bridge, there would be one policeman, he would live in that inner police station. He would have his wife if he was married with him who would run sort of do the office, put to the prisoners be the Patron if there was any to be transported. But most of them were one man detachments, one or one man or one member detachments. About 1949 The government of British Columbia decided that the British Columbia provincial force was costing them too much money. Go I'll stop there for one minute and say that parallel to the British Columbia provincial police that night in 1949 and 50. The RCMP were now in British Columbia as a parallel force. They did the federal laws. The British Columbia provincial police basically did the provincial law. So you had a parallel organization of police forces happening now in the small interior country. towns that didn't really particularly matter because most of those people were one member. But along the coast in Victoria, and Vancouver, you had a large presence of RCMP officers, and their headquarters was in Vancouver. So the government of the day 1949 entered into the negotiations with the RCMP federal government to take over policing of British Columbia. And the federal government agreed and this of course, is what happens is all cases, they agreed that they would pay the province of British Columbia would pay $1,400 A person $1,400, a member to the federal government for policing. And the federal government agreed to take them at $1,400 a person. But to show you how times haven't changed, the actual cost was $3,500 a person so for the first few years, the RCMP was being subsidized very heavily in British Columbia. But officially a 1950, the British Columbia Provincial Police was transferred to the RCMP, all of the police administration, Commissioner police and anybody above the headquarter staff was dismissed. Notice all of the members that were in the police divisions, at 24 hours basically to decide whether to go to the RCMP or move on, and about 80% of them, then transferred into the RCMP. And so from 1950 to the present day, we have been responsible police responsibly by the RCMP. The cost of the cost of policing the Gulf Islands today, is about the same as the cost of policing the province when they took it over. So you can see the costs have escalated quite a bit over the years. As we know, that's not probably surprising. In British Columbia, on Saltspring Island. In 1872, we had our first constable appointed here, he was a farmer in the north, Henry Sampson was appointed, and he was responsible for Saltspring Island. And it was a part time job as most of them were, he just didn't need it. Like to put out one or two of these slides just before I move on to the next page. These are just pictures of 14 officers were killed in the line of duty at the British Columbia provincial police, like the time period of time that we're working with. Charles Drew was the official Commissioner, the first one, the British public police badge of honor, that was their police badge that they had to show on their yard and their new modern cars. And in actual fact, when I go back to some of the trades, you'll be surprised to hear that they were a leader in many, many ways and facing various detachment of the members. That was their their uniforms were basically a dark brown with a sort of a green trim, I couldn't get a color one, but they would wear the green stripes, they would have the same as the RCMP that they were writing for us at one time. This was more or less than working uniform that they they use on a regular basis. And that was an officer at that particular time. So that gives you an example. And it might flashback to the people on call today to remember some of the members here.

Unknown Speaker 33:54
We also have to remember that the enforcement of the law judge Begbie was the head Enforcer. And that's him on your right. His claim to fame was he became called the hanging judge.

Unknown Speaker 34:16
He unfortunately had no other options in those days. If you committed murder, you're Hunter. That was basically the law. So in some cases, they were as young as 15 years old, but they were 17 That was the death penalty. And that was one of the reasons I think that a lot of the enforcement sort of was kept under control was there was no ways out of these particular things. There was so little sentence left up there at the top there's one reason is that there has never been a lynching in British Columbia. So within all of this Turtle Island, 60 70,000 Miners going through BC and all the public prize and the various things have happened in all these mining towns and there's the example of mining town for 1863 Little bit. And that's quite a modern one compared to some of the others. You will see no lynchings and very little mob rule in the communities. Now there was two there were two sets of laws. Basically, there were the laws for your, for those who lived in the Caribbean and for those who visited Canadian. And so that South led to some interesting things but most people live fairly peaceably in their each of their communities. Okay, what do we accomplish with the BC provincial police? Well, they were one of the first people to use radio and telegraph and basically radio in their in their cars. And they're one of the first police forces to get actively involved in marine policing, of course, because British Columbia is that way. Some of the original members had to roll everywhere they went or use small sales, but basically, they wrote. And finally motor boats came in and of course, they went with the times. They were one of the first groups to develop a crime lab for this area for fingerprinting and ballistics. They were very active during World War Two. And then they were involved with the security of many of the small areas. They also issued fishing licenses, hunting licenses, provided Customs and Excise services did land livestock brand inspections, issued trap line permits were registers for vital statistics serve civil court documents, issued dog licenses, investigated train actors, court prosecutors jailers, and prisoners prisoner escort services. And so they were very well known in their communities. Because every virtually every government function that had to happen had to happen through the breach of government, provincial police office. So there we are, that's sort of an overview of, of the British Columbia provincial police. Now, there's a couple of little things I'd like to say just before I open it up, because I'm used to dealing with 3d. Because I know they have an attention span of five minutes. And I think looking around this product will probably get about 25 minutes here. So I'll carry on some of the recollections I have as a young person my dad joined the force and right into it. And I can remember when I was seven years old, some of the some of the policing things that happen. I can remember the talk about the pay stations, they all were the same you walk in the door and the office is here the house is here the bedrooms are upstairs, in my bedroom, obviously to be able to sell blocks so I can hear all of the action that happened in the salad block below which is always interesting and quite informative, and probably formative in my youth. My dad was in Abbotsford in 1948, when the Fraser Valley Flood took place and was actually in charge of that area for the rescue and we're going to people during the war, I can remember the troop trains going out of Chilliwack he was often with escort duty. I can remember at the end of the air raid sirens always used to ring at certain times, usually nine o'clock at night to get all the kids off the street. But at the end of the war, they all ran your air raid sirens and I had the official capacity of bringing the air raid siren in Abbotsford, the end of the war 1945 When father let me turn the switch on and off to signify the end of the war. So that was something that I sort of stick with it. I can remember my dad telling me stories about the Duplo bars and Grand Forks where I was born, he was quite active in there. He's also quite active in that part of the world opposing the Ku Klux Klan who are quite active in their burning across and running through the through the countryside. Up in that part of the world. I remember him telling me in all the trains used to come down through the Kettle Valley there with hundreds of workmen on the cars heading east next year to come and pleasure to work with all the cars heading west but their job was to stop the trains and clean everybody off, let the train go through and make sure that most people arrived back in their town. So it was a very difficult times during some of the Depression times. I know that in my readings of some of these stories that law enforcement was quite rough in those days, there's bolts in there, after the RCMP took over, saying that they did not believe how the Provincial Police are able to control their communities with only one member. But it took a lot of physical violence took a lot of dog control and a lot of heavy handedness to make yourself known. But I think when you look at pacing in those days, that was more or less, sort of sort of what it was like it was a much more brutal way of dealing with disorders, I can remember 1950 My dad coming home and telling me that he was no longer for PT provincial policeman, he was very, I guess that is a good way to put it. He spent a long time there, most of the members were not happy to see their force disappear. But they didn't move on. Now, in those days, you moved every two years. So in my my life I went born in Grand Forks, Grand Forks, Hadley, Kelowna, Chilliwack, Abbotsford, polar, her Prince George, Edmonton, and candles, and then I graduated from school. So that's sort of how it was in those days. And it wasn't, I'm not going to know it was relieving Thursday, or whatever it was. So those were sort of some of the recollections now. I have some books here. I know, people. People gave me books, Dorothy Kyle brought me some but all these books are basically in the library. There's a series called The BC provincial police stories. There's three volumes in it, I'm going to use one of them in a minute just to wrap up here. These two, this one, all stories, all very interesting reading. There's a tear on the coast. local author outlines all of the land claims and some of the problems that they had in this area with land settlement, Hudson Bay Company and moving people back and forth. There's the old Gulf Islands Patchwork, which outlines a lot of the stories on the other islands. There's Charles's book Saltspring. He has a chapter on law and law enforcement and destroy the island and some of the politics the audit, which makes very interesting reading. Natural fact, Charles, that's the most information I found in one book you had in your book. So that's a good book to read. And then at the end, I found this one policing, a pioneer Province, which came out by a daughter of one member of the old provincial police force. And that's an excellent book to read. And then if you want to get a little bit of interest in local history, at Hamilton books, Saltspring Island, mentions people back and forth as part of the history of the island.

Unknown Speaker 43:04
I was going to just close and then open it up a bit for for some general discussions, but I went through all these books, and I didn't know exactly what to do anyway, just start reading your stories. And I know you didn't want me to just start reading the stories. So I found one in here that was quite interesting. And I'm not going to read it. I'm just going to summarize it. But it outlines is called the rowboat policeman. And it's about says the heading says in the 1890s transportation for officers and patrol in the Gulf Islands was very facing. She led her up to leather on land oars and sail on water. This outlines the law enforcement of the Gulf Islands story. And it wasn't centered on Saltspring was centered on main island. Because main island had better transportation facilities, better hotels, was all on the water. And so the first jail of all violence was actually established on main island. Galera is a part of the agricultural fairgrounds cross from their museum and their community hall. I think it is a redeem it across from the community hall is the first goal on the goal finance. Now they did try to establish one a jail on salt spray, and it was on this site here somewhere in this immediate area, because I asked him more about this and he said that there was the courthouses and church and the jail was all here. And this was quite sort of the center of the island at the time. But it became very unpopular because most people were traveling by boat. And so they would come into Ganges or they come into Fernwood, or they even Vesuvius, but it was very difficult to get here. So in one of the stories I read about Samson, our first our first officer on the island, they said he didn't really ever put prisoners in the jail. Have you probably kept them in his barn or down around, it's far easier to look after them than try and walk back and forth all the time to get to them. So the history of the B BC provincial places is a very interesting one. I'm glad it took a few minutes to share it with you this afternoon. I know there's some people here have some comments to me. And I actually just got interested in it because my dad was in it. I started reading about it and I gave him a talk and that's the first mistake you do when you give a talk because because somebody in the group says well, why don't you come forward and do it in another group? So this is the other group so thank you for for listening to me. I hope you got some information on the history you

Unknown Speaker 45:54
know, I know Bobby's been asked to save the city up front of the BC police Bob.

Unknown Speaker 46:00
I don't know if you are interesting. I thought I knew a little bit about the history when I find out.

Unknown Speaker 46:09
Well, you know what history on Saltspring All right. Tell us a bit about.

Unknown Speaker 46:26
Recent hiring movers Mr. Pryor prior to fire when he was a second. Then there was Mr. Jim Rogers. He was Jim Rogers was a local boy. His family had the first hotel in COVID Harbor before the White House.

Unknown Speaker 46:55
He got the job was placed on he was UPenn only two years and he was here for several years. He was such a good policeman. But anyway, the first time I got mixed up with Gemma Hudgens Valley School. Friend of mine the traffic started school with Me

Unknown Speaker 56:07
We have really had to reach out to teachers. So, on our way to school, Mr. Wallace, the old gentleman got a terrific fine garden. And he has a nice bunch of tulips along along the fence. So we thought it would be a nice thing if we could bring our teacher centers a birthday. Okay. So Steven Steven here, so we went on the fence. Nice Girl page for the teacher. So it didn't turn out. We've got a cool look come up to her desk and for her okay. All very nice. I appreciate that very much. So about noon, who comes down the road that Jim Rogers, the policeman with his Model T Ford, and Scott, come in and he said that I hear that somebody was stealing Mr. Mulder, smart cars, we can tell right away who it was. We were scared. And that how he remorse. He was a loner. And we were and when Mr. Rogers came in, and he said, Don't tell on me. So that gives you Oh, wait, I'm trying to say we're three motors. And so you must apologize. He was demonic powers. So. So when you were pretty scared, we were sitting in the back of this old court. Down the road, we go. To that gentleman's place. We apologize. And we were very careful after that. You have time, I'll just tell you about Jim Rogers. And Mr. Goodman card, Mr. Green Card, the customs officer. And he had the old winning. Winning masters tied up where the Yacht Club is now. And he lived this up on the hill. And I think it was about 1926. There was prohibition in the States. And the Remmers used to come and they'd come in and try to hide somewhere in the cold here around gun violence. They would take their load down at night. A boat from down there would come in and record down in Washington 1996 My brother and sister were going to school I really call it the chicken house stool. And they lived on on Angie's Hill in a log cabin. And they just had to crawl the park at night there was 10 shots throughout three shots throughout the MCL feel those days. And you didn't know what we found out after I worked with Jim Rogers. Later on. And he told me the whole story. He said that there was some people in Victoria that they had to run in the hole showed her the bootleggers lady of Burma unders and he said they didn't let anybody else if anybody else tried to come in, they would let them know here that's not that's because he was kind of handling our business. This vague kind of word that this track was banned with a big load of records in federal armor. So they went over and they were right into federal harbor and the, the red marker saw them coming. And he got it real fast. Come on. Mr. Betancourt, he's trying to build Winamac and have Kosis and Kip tour and he just just touched it. And Jimmy jumped from the the Winamac onto the to the farmer, and he slipped down and he had to stop. So he stopped and they hooked onto this groundwater loaded down with liquor. And they turned it into Ganges and tied up with the conservative cardstock. And this is going to be later on. So Mr. Betancourt went home like night before, so he knew when he left Jenny there with his guard just float around two o'clock in the morning too much. I gotta get some of this so they wouldn't have gotten his rowboat when he lived this down. Jimmy told me this on shelves and he got his rowboat and he went and he took I think he said three boats down and he hid them under a big cedar overhanging cedar tree in front of his house. And when Mr. Betancourt heard the shooting he came down Jimmy always since the sensor there was a vote came in a hijack is gonna take that vote out good job I had that three opportunity because I I was shooting up in the air but she said I scared him off that he said that he didn't get you didn't get several cases and liquor before I can stop

Unknown Speaker 1:02:59
not knowing Jeremy Jeremy told me that he for 10 years and he does cases and liquor out of his garden

Unknown Speaker 1:03:19
so good Bob

Unknown Speaker 1:03:29
Bob rush I know you're wrong here when the provincial police around I don't have high school sharing the prohibition district customers that's a good reputation to have sumo if you have any say

Unknown Speaker 1:03:56
movies by the time I was working out because the water is terrible and he's always up there trying to get to the hospital

Unknown Speaker 1:04:12
next door Sparrow with one thing I remember George fire when he first came the driving license based on your watch and when he came because privacy neural block six. So whenever George had a case we have to say could you please write it down? The only other story I have now to break

Unknown Speaker 1:05:04
90 died

Unknown Speaker 1:05:07
grandfather Well

Unknown Speaker 1:05:13
anybody else have anything else so should we have tea

Unknown Speaker 1:05:22
Ivan says yes

Unknown Speaker 1:05:29
thank you very much very well prepared and well presented

Unknown Speaker 1:05:38
and it brought back memories so we'll tweet oak was a great thing and I think it's a wonderful place and we'll never forget this job

Unknown Speaker 1:05:56
can meet somebody else and we were just about for the pharmacy as well. And we had a lot of opportunities this year

Unknown Speaker 1:06:07
and suddenly this George dogs lives off

Unknown Speaker 1:06:16
so doc just went around us like you couldn't go anywhere so please don't reach us to back his car he gets nine bikes

Unknown Speaker 1:06:33
kids get home. I never stopped running

Unknown Speaker 1:06:42
that's good. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:51
Returns