rants and observations

On March 31, 1984 Steve Fonyo started his Journey For Lives cross country run for cancer. He finished the run on May 29, 1985 on a beach in Victoria, raising $14 million dollars for cancer research and becoming a national hero. He met Pope John Paul II, Lady Diana, George Harrison and other celebrities and politicians. He was living the high life. Things have changed since then for Steve Fonyo.

Steve Fonyo was on the front cover of The Province on Sunday May 16 and Michael Smyth wrote an interesting and revealing article about his life in 2010. All of Steve’s past indiscretions have come back to haunt him and life is not nearly as interesting for him as it once was.

In 1996, he pleaded guilty to 16 charges for offences in Edmonton, including assault with a weapon, aggravated assault, fraud for writing bad cheques totalling $10,000 to supermarkets and possession of a stolen vehicle. He has also been convicted at least five times of impaired driving and seven times of driving without a licence, most recently in the fall of 2008. On Aug.13, 2009, Fonyo, who was last known to have been working as a heavy-machinery mechanic, appeared in Surrey Provincial Court charged with one count of assault. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one day in jail. He was also subject to a one-year probation order. But just five days later, the 44-year-old was back in Surrey court, having breached his conditions. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 14 days in jail.

In December of 2009 Steve discovered he was losing Canada’s highest civilian honour, the Order of Canada, while lying on a bed in a Maple Ridge jail cell. One of the other inmates advised him that he was on TV and he heard the Order of Canada status was being terminated due to his “multiple criminal convictions, for which there are no outstanding appeals“.

Steve presently works as a landscaper and part-time mechanic and claims he is broke and owes I.C.B.C. $137,000 stemming from an accident in 1994 (I’m guessing he was drunk). He lives with his girlfriend, Lisa Greenwood from whom he once had a restraining order preventing him from contacting her. They had a loud argument in their rented Surrey home and his neighbours called the police. He couldn’t afford a lawyer and pleaded guilty and spent some time in jail where he says he was almost stabbed by another inmate. “It was a nightmare…But the worst part was I never should have been there. I didn’t do anything“. Yeah Steve, we’ve all been in jail for something we didn’t do.

I realize that everyone should have a second chance and all is not always how it appears on the surface but Mr. Fonyo had a chance that most of us never realize and didn’t realize his potential. He emulated Terry Fox and became a national hero but destroyed that advantage by his increasingly bad behaviour and significant run-ins with the law. Are we to feel sorry for him? Should we feel bad that his Order of Canada status was revoked and he’s been disgraced in the eyes of the public? I don’t think so and can only think of the many deserving Canadians that would have made much more his or her life if given the chances and advantages that Steve Fonyo enjoyed.

He has made his bed and now he lies in it, surrounded by a rental home in Surrey, mountains of debt and a heavily tarnished reputation. He made the decisions that have lead to his present situation and has no one to blame but himself. I sometimes wonder what Terry Fox would have made of it all.

My employer, Canwest Global Communications Corp, has sold it’s 46 newspapers to a group of bondholders fronted by Paul Godfrey, president and CEO of the National Post. Canwest has been operating under court supervision since 2009 and has struggled since the death of it’s founder Israel Asper, it’s purchase of expensive acquisitions and the downward spiral in advertising revenues for newspapers and television during the recent global recession. All combined to force David and Gail Asper, the son and daughter of Canwest Global Communications founder Israel Asper, to resign from the media conglomerate’s board of directors and the company to come under control of it’s creditors.

I can’t say I’m unhappy to be free of Canwest and Mr. Godfrey appears to be an astute business man, savvy politician and media manager. Here’s a few fast facts:

• Graduated University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Applied Science in chemical engineering
• Alderman in the borough of North York 1964 – 1973
• Chairman of Metropolitan Toronto 1973 – 1984
• Member of Ontario Premier Frank Miller’s informal ‘kitchen cabinet’
• Publisher and CEO of The Toronto Sun – 1984
• Appointed to the board of Stadium Corporation of Ontario – 1984
• Succeeded founder Doug Creighton as president and chief operating officer of Toronto Sun Publishing – 1991
• Order of Canada – April 1999
• President and CEO of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball club – 2000
• Named president and CEO of The National Post – 2008

As with any new boss, Canwest employees are wondering what’s next for the newspaper chain, who will survive, who will thrive and who will be knocked out of the park like an errant fly-ball. Mr. Godfrey answered a few of those questions (sort of) on the CBC Radio show As It Happens which I’ve included below. I, for one, welcome the change and hope it’s the dawn of a new, productive and profitable era for our city’s newspapers.

Paul Godfrey on CBC Radio – Click play button to listen

You may have received the ‘prescription drugs’ email from a friend or co-worker that outlines drug price discrepancies from one pharmacy to another. I tend to ignore those type of emails as a general rule but I had occasion to test the accuracy of the viral email’s claims recently and thought I’d post my findings.

The email in question was titled ‘Costco Prescriptions’ and included a variety of prescription drugs with consumer pricing, cost of active ingredient and percentage of markup. Including the ingredient pricing and the markup is actually quite deceiving because drug companies don’t really charge for the drug itself but rather the cost of development and marketing. Big bucks in the drug world and we, the consumer, pay for it. Through the nose and other orifices.

The main point of the message is that prescription drugs purchased from Costco Wholesale are significantly cheaper than the price you pay at London Drugs, Shoppers Drug Mart, Save-On-Foods and others. Yeah right. The message reminded me of those goofy web sites that report gas prices at various stations in the lower mainland and the wankers that drive 20km to save $1.12. I’m not willing to drive an extra 20km (there and back) to save 3 bucks. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Recently my doctor prescribed two drugs which I had filled at Thrifty Foods. The total cost of 30 tablets of each (for a total of 60 tablets) was just under $70. Not cheap. When the prescription ran out my doctor prescribed the same medication but for 100 of each tablet. I estimated that the prescription would cost me just north of $250.00 so I decided to try Costco. The total cost of the prescription of 200 tablets was just over $120.00 and was filled in less than 10 minutes (Thrifty Foods took over 30 minutes to fill the other prescription. Don’t ask me why because it didn’t appear they were particularly busy. Perhaps an incentive to do some shopping?).

On my doctor’s advice I also purchased Wild Salmon Oil from Pharmasave. I paid $14.00 for a Jamieson ‘bonus’ bottle of 90 capsules (300 mg). I picked up a bottle of 240 (1000 mg) Webber Naturals Wild Salmon Oil capsules at Costco for slightly over $9.00. A dramatic cost difference to say the least. I’m obviously not comparing identical manufacturers but the product must be manufactured to Health Canada specifications so they’re essentially the same.

Over-the-counter and prescription drugs are grossly overpriced (have you seen the price of Claritin lately?) so it’s nice to know we can buy the medications we need for a fair price without having our pockets picked. And you don’t even have to be a member of Costco to use the Pharmacy. There’s another interesting fact you wouldn’t have known if you didn’t read my blog.

Newspapers have obviously changed in the last 63 years. The print and paper quality, size, typeface and layouts are quite different in The Vancouver Sun but the most glaring difference is the reporting style. The photo above was published Tuesday, September 2, 1947 in the Sun’s second section, top and centre of the page. It shows onlookers at a motor vehicle accident on King George Highway, with the victim’s bleeding and battered bodies still in the car. The driver is obviously dead, blood draining from his nose.

The caption below the photo reads:

SUDDEN DEATH ON THE HIGHWAY is vividly portrayed in this on-the-spot Sun photo, showing seven victims in one smashed auto following a collision on King George Highway early Sunday. At the wheel of the auto, foreground, is Stephan P. Angrimson, 22, of 2720 East Thirty-eighth, dead. Six other passengers tossed about in the car lie crumpled and seriously injured.

The second photo below shows witnesses, one idiot with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, removing the bodies from the vehicle with not one cop or ambulance attendant in sight. The passengers didn’t enjoy the benefit of seat belts or airbags and were attended to by a group of morons. They didn’t have a chance.

The caption below the photo reads:

STARTLED WITNESSES remove the dead and injured from one of two cars involved in the early Sunday morning crash in Surrey. In the foreground lies Stephan P. Arngrimson, who was pronounced dead on arrival at Royal Columbian Hospital. Beside him lies another victim, seriously injured. Police engaged in the Surrey manhunt assisted an ambulance shuttle service in speeding the victims to hospital.

A few things stuck me when I saw these photos in an original copy of The Vancouver Sun given to me by my neighbour. Firstly, the fact that the newspaper photographer managed to take pictures of the accident before anyone had offered assistance to the victims. He/She took the time to find the right angle for best effect, shoot a few pictures and then continue to photograph the carnage. The onlookers are casually milling about in the background with hands in pockets, smoking cigarettes with injured and dead victims in the car and gasoline leaking from the vehicle.

Were people really void of compassion or so unwilling to help back in 1947? Can you imagine the scene now, 10 people with WCB first aid certification helping the injured, nobody smoking a cigarette and the sea of emergency workers on the scene with state-of-the-art medical equipment and techniques to save the lives of the victims.

Times have changed and you frequently hear old farts referring to the good old days. Yeah life was simpler years ago but, according to these pictures, life wasn’t really that good if you were in a traffic accident in 1947.

Please excuse the quality of the image scans but newspaper is notoriously difficult to scan, especially newspapers that are almost 63 years old.