Tweed Jacket Man

When we left off on Monday, Mary Brown and Shirley Parsons, legal secretaries working late at 508 Hornby Street, had just found a man in a tailor's shop being beaten by another man in a tweed jacket with a cane. A man in white overalls had answered Mary's cry for assistance while Shirley ran back to the office to call the police.

So Mary, the man in the tweed jacket and the man in overalls are standing by the front door of the tailor shop and Mary has just accused the man with the cane of beating the third man laying on the floor of the shop. Now, another man - this one in a blue overcoat who appeared to have been drinking - joined them. The man in the overalls, not believing Mary's story, said, "Yes, he must have been having a fit." He then stood aside and allowed the man in the tweed jacket walk out of the store. The tweed jacket man proceeded down Hornby Street towards Pender.

At that moment, the man who had been beaten sat up and said, "It's a hold-up, please help me."

Mary told the two men standing there to stop the tweed jacket man but they made no effort to do so. Mary was scared but also angry and she went after the assailant on her own.

Tweed jacket man had reached Pender Street and turned East. Mary rushed to the corner and looked along Pender but tweed jacket man was nowhere to be seen.

He hadn't had time to reach the other end of the block so it stands to reason that he must have ducked into one of the buildings.

Mary walked back to the parking lot behind her office building and looked beneath the cars in case he was hiding there but tweed jacket man had disappeared. She walked back to the store to check on the man who was injured. She then saw the man in the blue overcoat get into a car and drive off.

At the store, Mary saw that the man in the overalls was gone but she was joined by Shirley who told her the police were on their way.

The two women then went into the store to check on the victim. He was an elderly man and he had managed to pick himself up and was sitting in a chair. He was shaking badly but his injuries did not appear to be serious. He was holding a wallet in his hands and told the women that tweed jacket man had robbed him of $8.00.

He asked Mary to hand him his hat, which was lying on the floor of the cubicle. She did so. He placed the hat on his head and told her that his assailant had come in and asked for a pair of trousers. Tweed jacket then called the tailor into the changing cubicle to check the fit. That was when the tailor was attacked.

Constables Nebisuk and Burton came into the store as the man was telling his story. They were responding to Shirley's telephone call.

Thanks to Joe Swan and his book Policebeat for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill

Working Late

The date was April 20, 1961, it was a Thursday. Two legal secretaries, Mary Brown and Shirley Parsons, were working late at offices on the top floor of 508 Hornby Street. They were busy typing documents needed for court the next day. The sounds of the clacking keys were the only sounds in the empty building.

That is until at little after seven o'clock. Mary stopped typing and beckoned for Shirley to do the same. The two women waited in silence a few moments until they heard the sound again.

Coming from one of the floors below them was a series of muffled bangs followed by a voice calling, "Help, help, call the police."

At first, the two women thought someone had accidentally been locking in one of the building's other offices and they were shouting to be let out. However, when the shouting became more frantic, Mary and Shirley grabbed their keys and went downstairs to investigate.

They reached the ground floor and the shouts became louder but seemed to be coming from outside the building. They went outside onto Hornby Street to check through the windows of the secretarial office on the ground level. The sounds had stopped but the women looked through the windows and saw nothing.

Next door to the office building was the lighted window of a tailor's shop. The two women walked over and looked inside. They saw a man dressed in a tweed jacket, at the back of the store, striking at something on the floor with a cane.

When the man moved aside, they saw the 'something' on the floor was another man. He was thrashing about on the floor, trying to avoid the blows.

Shirley ran back to phone the police while Mary tried the door to see if it was open. It was. Mary Brown stuck her head in and yelled at the attacker who turned and looked at her. He stopped hitting the man on the floor who lay still.

Mary then noticed a man walking on the sidewalk. He was wearing white overalls and coming her way. She called out to him, saying a man was being beaten.

The man in the overalls opened the door and looked inside. As he did, the man in the tweed jacket with the cane, walked to the door and said, "He had a fit."

"He did like heck," Mary said, "I saw you hitting him."

What an interesting story to start the New Year! I'll tell you more on Wednesday. Thanks go to Joe Swan and his book, PoliceBeat, for the above information.

I hope you all had a great Christmas and let's make 2016 our best year yet!

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill

Margaret, the Activist

The marriage between Margaret and Pierre Trudeau deteriorated to the point where, Margaret had an affair with Senator Ted Kennedy. She was also associated with members of the Rolling Stones such as Ronnie Woods and Mick Jagger. (This is according to Margaret's book and Keith Richards' autobiography respectively.)

Margaret separate from Pierre in 1977 and began a much talked about life as a jet-setter. She was also suffering from stress and bipolar disorder depression. Her ex-husband won custody of the boys and didn't pay any spousal support so Margaret found it difficult to make a living after her divorce. She began to give tell-all interviews to magazines in the US and Canada as well as appearing in two movies. She also wrote the book, Beyond Reason, which told of her marriage to the Canadian politician.

Pierre Trudeau's Liberal party failed to maintain a majority of seats in the House of Commons in the 1979 election. On that evening, Margaret Trudeau was dancing at the New York City nightclub, Studio 54. The next day, photos of her dancing were splashed across papers nationwide.

On November 16, 1983, Margaret filed for a no-fault divorce. It was finalized on April 2, 1984. Just over two weeks later, on April 18, 1984, Margaret married Ottawa real-estate developer, Fried Kemper. Her three sons attended the wedding. Margaret and Fried had two children together: a son named Kyle born in 1984 and a daughter, Alicia, born in 1988.

Tragedy struck the Trudeau family in November of 1988. Michel, the youngest son, was killed was killed when an avalanche swept him to the bottom of British Columbia's Kokanee Lake. This was devastating for Margaret and she suffered another massive depressive episode. The led to her second divorce.

Pierre Trudeau died in 2000 and Margaret - as well as their two sons, Justin and Alexandre - were at his bedside. 10 years later, Margaret said about her marriage to Trudeau;

"Just because our marriage ended didn’t mean the love stopped."

On May 5, 2006, Margaret announced she was suffering from bipolar disorder. She is an advocate for reducing the stigma surrounding mental illness, particularly bipolar disorder. She has speaking engagements across North America and is an honorary patron of the Canadian Mental Health Association.  She is also the author of Changing My Mind a look at her struggles with bipolar disorder. The book was published in 2010 by Harper Collins.

Today, Margaret Trudeau is he honorary president of WaterCan, an Ottawa-based organization dedicated to helping the poorest communities in developing countries build sustainable water supply and sanitation services.

On October 19, 2015, Margaret's eldest son, Justin Trudeau, began his run for the position of Prime Minister of Canada. Justin led the Liberal party to a majority government, making him the 23rd Prime Minister of Canada. During the campaign period, Trudeau avoided campaigning herself in fear of suggesting her son was "so unready he needs his mummy."

This is my last entry for 2015. I want to thank all my readers for their continued support. I love writing this blog, finding out more about the city and country I live and sharing it with you. However, my goals in life have shifted a bit.

On September 14, 2015, I launched a mentor/life coach program to help people with chronic illness or disability reach goals, achieve dreams and live a better life. I have also recently become a member of the Rick Hansen Ambassador program. I have a budding career as a motivational speaker. In 2016, I am going to be pursuing these goals with more vigor so there may be gaps in how often I write the Vancouver Voyageur. I am not deserting you yet though.

Thanks to Wikipedia for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Have a very Merry Christmas and may all your dreams come true in 2016.

Karen Magill