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The Salvation Army Community Services Food Bank is situated on the 600 block of Vernon Street in Nelson, overlooking the west arm of Kootenay Lake. The food bank has been in this picturesque location for the last 3 years. Lee Westman, current co-ordinator of the food bank, has been here for 6 months.

Food Banks were originally thought in the early 1980's to be a temporary necessity to offset the then happening recession. Westman has found supply and demand has kept food banks operating as pensions and other fixed incomes have remained at insuffiecient levels to meet basic needs.

The biggest slice of pie, Westman finds, that uses the Salvation Army Food Bank is single parent families. They are able to utilize the food bank ever 2 weeks, while single people can come in once a month for a bag of food.

Westman has noticed that Christmas is the biggest time of year for food donations to come in. Food supplies usually last approxmiately 2 months. Once that is finished, Westman mentioned, money collected from the Christmas kettles is used throughout the year to buy food. Schools throughout Nelson provide most of the donations for the Salvation Army Food Bank, while Safeway donates bread 3 times a week. Since the Salvation Army Food Bank hasn't any facilities to store fruits and meats, Westman is on the look out for dry goods. Westman is looking for staples not junk food the most. Westman went on to say that the Thrift Store backs up any emergency situations the food bank finds itself in later in the year if food levels run low.

Currently the Salvation Army Food Bank has only one staff member and one volunteer.

The Salvation Army Food Bank will co-operate with other agencies in Nelson. Community Services at the Food Bank can provide access to the Miracle Valley Treatment Centre near Mission for men, while women are referred to Homestead in Kelowna. Westman is always looking for more sources to help replenish food supplies and hopes for more volunteer involvement in the future. Westman would like to provide financial and therapeutic counselling for anyone who needs it.

Westman would like to work himself out of a job if and when demands for food bank services diminish and end in the future. Possible solutions that Westman sees is more job creation and building an alternative emergency shelter in Nelson for transients who need a place in from inclement weather.

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"None of our newspapers are as bad as people think nor as good as we want." - Pat O'Callaghan.

"When you leave work each day the community should be a bit better off." - Kevin Peterson.

Journalists should be paying more attention to what is actually going on in the real world. Instead the media seems to be fascinated with trivial events and gossip. There are far more important things to read a about than celebrity hijinks and breakups such as Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise. This type of information over a long period causes people to tune out and not take media reports seriously.

I wonder how much the media has gotten off track regarding the true extent of stories they report. Has SARS, West Nile Virus and Mad Cow Disease, among other topics, been over-hyped by the media? If other news stories were taken literally one might be reluctant to drive becasue of road rage, walk anywhere in case they get swarmed by a street gang, have sex for fear of getting infected with a STD or trust a priest on suspicion he is a child molestor. Sensationlism does get out of hand in the media and how many of us are taking an adverse reaction to it?

Yet the media can be part of the solution by focussing more on the positive things being done in the world. They can provide information that challenges the mind to think and serve as a guide to action. Also newspapers reports need to focus on news that really matters. This may take getting out of their ivory towers and get down to the nitty gritty of reporting news that needs to be looked at in the cold white light of dawn, not through the eyes of the politically correct nor the revisionist historians. The media should be a thorn in the side of bureaucrats, status quotists and anyone else on an ego trip.

The media doesn't fail when time proves some facts wrong. The media fails when it doesn't investigate enough when doing a story of offending the poitically correct or maintains the status quo. The media continues to fail when they become cynics not skeptics or caters to spcial interest groups and not to higher standards of journalism.

Myself, I'm surprised most of the reactions to my published material has been good. Detractors have few few and far between. Influences of mine have been William M Gaines, George Carlin and Rick Reilly. Gaines owned MAD Magazine until his death in 1992. Nothing was sacred as far as MAD went and Gaines showed how satire, in print, can be used effectively to make points. Carlin used the verbal equilvalent of how satire worked and some of his observations on the human condition have been astute. Rick Reilly maintains his post as the back page of Sports Illustrated. Reilly shows that writing can be done in a positive manner and still be effective.

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He taunted her as she walked back and forth on the sidewalk in front of the Officer's Café. "How ugly you are!" he shot at her, "You have lost your teeth. Are you trying to hide?"

To summarize this passage from Les Miserables', Inspector Javert arrests Fantine, after she lashes out at the 'Jim dandy' and scratches him. Arbitrarily and on the spot, Javert the policeman sentences her to six months in jail. Most know the story. She is a poor woman, moral, but because of circumstance (She loses her job) and is slowly forced into more and more desperation until she sells her hair to a barber, then ends up on the street trying to make enough to feed her child Cosette.

A portrait of injustice - but is it a good example of contemporary society? Some would say yes. Hypocrisy, double standards and corruption - We have it now, as then, and perhaps even more now.

There are more homeless in Canada per capita than in the U.S. Canada has one of the highest per capita rates of homelessness of any developed nation in the world. We have about 200,000 homeless. The U.S., with a population nine times the size of us has 750,000.

While welfare rates have been cut in several provinces in recent years, and housing is an issue in almost every province; there has also been a rise in laws directly targeting the less fortunate.

In Toronto, Canada's largest city there have been activities resembling a war with activist groups and coalitions of groups demonstrating against police "sweeps" similar to those carried out in large U.S. cities. "The system has cut welfare rates to the poor in Ontario, there are not enough shelters, and now the top it off they are implementing a new law making it illegal to sleep in public areas. It is obscene, it's immoral." Said John Clarke of Ontario Coalition Against Poverty in Toronto. "Bill 8 targeted squeegee kids and others, people who were not committing a crime. Other provinces are now copying our provincial by-law."

"This week, Toronto City Council voted into place legislation that will authorize the clearing of homeless people from City Hall Square and other city owned squares." Clarke said, "Municipal bylaw officers and cops are already using city rules to clear public parks and other spaces where people try to survive. This latest move complements the Provincial Safe Streets Act that has been used to persecute those who panhandle and squeegee. Urban space is being redeveloped so as to put the emphasis on upscale commercial and residential property. The poor and homeless face a brutal wave of social cleansing and the kind of legislation I have just alluded to is the legal face of this vile attack. Defying and defeating this inhuman assault on those driven into poverty will be a hard fought battle we can't afford to lose."

In BC, the Safe Streets Act was implemented late in 2004. The fines ranging from $86 to $115, to be issued by police as tickets similar to traffic offences, are the finishing touches of the Liberal government's Safe Streets Act and amended Trespass Act. It is similar to Bill 8 in Ontario, which was implemented four years ago.

But Bill Burrill, pictured on the left, President of Together Against Poverty in Victoria BC says their new law is more aimed at panhandlers in BC. "The politicians claimed they were targeting inappropriate behaviour or aggressive panhandlers," Burrill said, "I don't believe that -- the criminal code clearly covers all acts inappropriate in public. They don't need this Safe Streets Act at all. It is specifically targeting panhandlers. It has been brought into place to 'beautify' the streets for rich tourists." The law is so new it hasn't been challenged yet. There is a challenge to bill 8 in Ontario however.

Other cities were watching closely as National Anti Poverty Association challenged Winnipeg's draconian anti-panhandling by-law. It dragged on for five years and was finally settled out of court with Winnipeg city hall finally giving in. The Winnipeg law restricted where and when panhandlers could work. Winnipeg had implemented it in 1995 and interestingly, their own lawyers had advised against the law agreeing with activists that the criminal code was sufficient to deal with panhandlers. The police even advised against the law. City council did what Toronto's city council did. They 'vetoed' the findings and advice of those who warned against it and voted for the by-law against the advice of the 'experts' and did what the business community demanded. Winnipeg also implemented the very first anti-squeegee kid by-law in 1998. Again, against the advise of a 50 member task force made up of people from various social agencies and police. Almost unanimously, the number one recommendation was to licence the squeegeers and allow then to continue. There has been no challenge to the squeegee law, however. Winnipeg's panhandler by-law was repealed without going to trial and replaced with one focusing only on aggressive behaviour while panhandling. So NAPO won in principle. Amazingly, Winnipeg city council is again proposing a new anti-panhandler by-law.

"We need to find a better way to deal with poverty and desperation," said Dennis Howlett, Executive director of NAPO, (National Anti Poverty Organization) in Ottawa. " The reason these laws are being passed is because of pressure from small businesses in municipalities."

Howlett said that the costs of trails of panhandlers costs taxpayers a great deal of money when you add to it all the cost of defending unjust laws in Canada -- money that could be spent on housing for the homeless.

Echoing his statements are activists across the nation who are enjoying tremendous success in defending panhandlers and squeegee kids in court. The Ticket Defence Committee in Ottawa has defended over two hundred people fined under the Safe Streets Act. Howlett said the activists and lawyers have been 'tremendously successful' in having charges thrown out. The defence is simple -- The fine would pose an undue hardship on someone who has no money.

In Toronto, lawyers and activists have tackled it another way: arguing that the law is against the Charter Rights of the panhandlers and squeegee kids. The Act may also be unlawful since only the federal government can introduce laws regarding criminal matters. BC has gone against the spirit of that argument apparently and their anti-panhandling law was upheld after a challenge by NAPO. There has been no appeal yet from NAPO on the decision and a challenge to the new Safe Streets Act is a higher priority. In the United States advocates have been very successful defending the poor citing cruel and unusual punishment as outlined in the American Constitution. Several American cities have actually had to repeal their anti-panhandling by-laws and laws targeting the poor on the street.

Along with many judges across Canada who have a conscience -- Judge Edwin Zimmerman, a judge in Winnipeg, where the first squeegee kid law was enacted, not only threw one of Canada's first anti-squeegee charges a few years ago, but added, " I think you're doing a fine job -- you're dismissed!'

Some of the Canadian cities with laws concerning panhandling are: Ottawa; Quebec City; Toronto, Winnipeg; Calgary and Vancouver. Quebec City, Montreal, Winnipeg, the province of Ontario, and the province of BC have laws targeting squeegee kids.

Is there a need for new laws targeting the poor? When questioning the public about it many will say, 'yes, because of the crime on the street'. But they are not aware that neither panhandlers nor squeegee kids are likely to harm them in any way. In fact, statistics show the opposite-- that the homeless and poor on the street are often victims of violence from the general public!

I have spent many hours observing the behaviour of people on the street. People would often say something rude to the squeegee kids -- the same with panhandlers. But not the reverse. I've seen worse. One day at Portage and Broadway in Winnipeg a young girl and her boyfriend were squeegeeing. A group of kids in an SUV were at the stoplight. As they pulled away one of them threw and ashtray and hit the girl squarely on the temple. Blood poured from her head. I could hear the people in the SUV wailing with laughter as the cowards fled the scene -- the girl required 40 stitches. When I told the police they were totally uninterested.

I was on Osborne Street in Winnipeg another day. I witnessed an employee of a tattoo parlour come out of his store and punch a Native male in the face several times until the poor man fell to the ground. At least fifteen people sat sipping their expensive drinks in the sidewalk section of an upscale restaurant. When I asked no one was willing to testify or get involved. Yet another incident in friendly Manitoba: I was not there but heard about it from several youths on the street. A group of males jumped out of a van and beat two squeegee kids severely with golf clubs. When others ran a few short blocks and told police the police said, ' The squeegee kids shouldn't have been on the street it's their own fault.' The police refused to search for the van even though they were given the licence number. Yet the chambers of commerce nation wide are hounding the civic politicians to 'protect' the public from panhandlers and squeegee kids.

I dressed in shabby clothes one day and tried to pan on Portage Avenue in Winnipeg. I have never seen such rude behaviour in my life. I think most people would suffer extreme trauma if they tried to panhandle. I don't think most people enjoy it actually; they simple do it because they are extremely poor and desperate.

Whereas it is a given that there is crime on the street, the focus of public attention is not being directed by the system or the mainstream media to the real culprits. Meanwhile contemporary law and an attitude leaning in recent years towards less sympathy for the less fortunate has made it a hard go for some people who are merely trying to subsidise a very low fixed income by begging or squeegeeing.

In Barbara Murphy's book The Ugly Canadian, the decline and fall of a caring society, she states,' we take pride in our toughness now, not our generous social policies. We warn the poor and sick to keep their heads up; they've had their innings. The years of compassion are over (the 40s to the 80s) Today we're playing hardball…concern about the deficit turned to anger and the public looked for someone to blame. Two items everyone could understand stood out: The deficit and social programs. Even though very little of the deficit could be blamed on social programs'.

Laws against the poor are not new. Vagrancy and panhandling by-laws have been around for over a hundred years - or since the beginning of your nation. The resurgence is mainly because of overly eager civic politicians wanting to placate the desires, moral or otherwise, of the business community.

In 1982 political scientist James Wilson and criminologist George Kelling co-authored an article in Atlantic Monthly titled "Broken Windows". They claimed that the best way to fight crime was to target the disorder that precedes it, such as: panhandling, garbage, derelict buildings, and graffiti.

New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani adopted the Broken Windows Theory and implemented a community-policing strategy focused on order maintenance… graffiti washed nightly from subway cars, $1.25 subway turnstile-jumpers arrested, trash picked up. Minor, seemingly insignificant quality-of-life crimes were found to be the tipping point for violent crime. When New York "windows" were repaired, crime dropped - or so the bureaucrats claim. Canadian cities took note and soon Toronto initiated Bill 8.

Bill 8 is province wide in scope and targets squeegee kids as well as other actions deemed anti social behaviour. Activist and director of Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, John Clarke is a big opponent of it and says a group of activists are challenging it. Here is an excerpt from Bill 8:

'…This is one simple way that citizens measure their quality of life. They want to go shopping or take their children to a park or just go out for a stroll after seeing a show without hassle. They don't want to worry about encountering behaviour that poses a safety hazard, and yet this is exactly what is happening in Ontario.

Activities such as aggressive solicitation, squeegeeing and the disposal of dangerous objects in parks have compromised the safe use of public places.'

But squeegee kids and panhandlers are extremely unlikely to rob, assault, and rape anyone. It is true, however, that downtown areas of cities are where the highest rates of crime can be found. Interestingly, in Winnipeg where the first anti-squeegee kid by-law was implemented in 1998, drug dealing, which is truly a crime, was rife in Winnipeg. But the Business Improvement Zone (BIZ) politicians, and the police launched no such campaign as was launched against squeegee kids. Why? Squeegee kids and panhandlers were singled out - the poor people on the streets.

Today, you can walk down Osborne Street and immediately see the dealers, pimps, and gang members at the corner of River and Osborne St, standing around looking cool. If one were to check their criminal records it would stretch 10 blocks long. They stand around boldly, as if proud of themselves. Seven years have passed since the squeegee kid by-law and 'sweep' of the scruffy looking squeegee kids. 'Real' crime in the village is still the same -- or even higher. Is it because drugs and other 'real' crimes are good for business-but poor/scruffy people are not?

"It's a comfort issue", said Arlne Peltz, Lawyer for NAPO; the group that successfully challenged Winnipeg's panhandler law five years ago, " That's what we'll show in court, Peltz had said.

The NAPO statement of claim against the Winnipeg panhandler by-law had argued that the true purpose of the panhandler by-law was to distance and separate panhandlers from the rest of the population - to avoid discomfort of proximity to indigents on the street. That's the story you will get from many an activist -- it's about comfort and aesthetics. Many cities even called their downtown 'revitalization' projects 'beautification' projects.

Every generation thinks the present generation of kids worse than the previous. That's according to a study done by two Guelph researchers in Ontario -O'Grady and Sprott. They also stated that most people have already made up their minds about homeless youth but they would like to know if the "experts" agree. I'm not a big fan of "experts" especially when it comes to social issues. I have seen their work before and have disagreed many a time but O'Grady and Sprott seem to have made some good points.

Sprott stated that fear is fueling the passage of laws designed to keep schools and society safe from violence, policies that Sprott says are often based more on anxiety and assumptions than reality. Recent examples include the Ontario provincial Safe Streets Act that allows police to ticket people for squeegeeing and outlaws panhandling in spots where the right-of-way is impeded (such as near bank machines and transit stops).

Legislation that dictates where and when street youth can panhandle does not even begin to address the real problems kids face O'grady and Sprott's study showed that hysteria and paranoia have much to do with people's perceptions of youth today, especially homeless youth. For example, he believes that people's consternation with squeegee kids does not have a lot to do with the youths themselves.

His study on squeegee kids included interviews with more than 50 Toronto teens who were involved in squeegee cleaning and 50 who did not clean car windows for money.

The findings revealed that squeegee kids were less likely to sell drugs, commit crimes and engage in violent behaviour than other less-visible street youth were. Squeegee kids also had a better mental outlook… Ironically whole new laws are being implemented to criminalize these people and prevent them from working. The first law was implemented in friendly Manitoba. There are several new laws targeting poor youth in Canada. These laws were brought into being with relative ease with the business communities attending all the city hall meetings across our nation to be careful and make sure these "criminals"' are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. In the space of a few short months the anti-squeegee kid by-law in Winnipeg was implemented. Interestingly, youth advocates across Canada have been lobbying for decades - literally - to raise the age of consent so that sexual predators in our communities would not victimize young people. The age of consent in Canada is 14 years old. Why have they not been successful? The politicians seem so eager to please the businesspersons across our nation -- yet the most vulnerable in our great country are ignored, as are their advocates!

The following is an excerpt from the North American Street Newspaper Association website: 'A report put out earlier this year by the Washington-based National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty (NLCHP) reviewed the punitive policies in 50 U.S. cities. It found that in 49 cities where the information was available, 86 per cent have laws that restrict begging. During the last two years, 12 per cent of those cities have enacted new laws restricting begging, and 73 per cent have laws restricting sleeping and/or camping outdoors.

In many ways (videotaping or monitoring) serves more as a deterrent," says Michael Stoops, project director of the Washington-based National Coalition for the Homeless. "No private security guard or police officer's going to make themselves look foolish in front of a camera. But it's hard to get patrols out there on a regular basis. So we find it's best to educate homeless people about what their rights are and to give them the name and address of the local civil liberties attorney."

"We found litigation to be the best way to stop a law from being passed or enforced," says Stoops. '

In Toronto, police reform lawyers like Mark Wainberg are only beginning to look at the possibility of launching a class-action suit against the police. But in U.S. cities, lawsuits on behalf of the homeless are common

According to several studies in the United States it is the homeless and desperate youth who have suffered assaults and been victims of crime - perpetrated by non-homeless individuals in the general public. When poor people are assaulted on the street they almost never report it. But the media blows it up big when a poor person is provoked or attacks someone of the general public.

In The U.S. during the years (1999-2003) advocates and homeless shelter workers have seen an alarming rise in reports of homeless men, women, and even children killed, beaten, and harassed. Since 1999 National Coalition for the Homeless has been compiling records of abuse against the homeless in America. In 2003, nine homeless people died as a result of beatings by non-homeless individuals. Dozens were assaulted on the street. These numbers are probably far higher, however, because most homeless people do not report abuse. There has not been a similar study in Canada.

Groups like National Coalition for the Homeless in the States have been successful in challenging unjust laws and in spreading the word: "Instead of the compassionate responses that communities have used to save lives in the past two decades, the common response to homelessness is to criminalize the victims through laws and ordinances that make illegal life-sustaining activities that people experiencing homelessness are forced to do in public," said Donald Whitehead, former Executive Director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, who is himself formerly homeless.

As it becomes increasingly difficult to afford housing, this country is turning to jails instead of creating affordable housing. These individuals and families are arrested for committing such illegal acts as sitting or standing on sidewalks and napping in parks. Whitehead stated, "At the national level, we see a relationship between municipalities' efforts to make homelessness a crime and the increases in hate crimes and violent acts directed at homeless people in those cities."

A woman I spoke to on the street in Winnipeg made and interesting comment… ' Yes, there is a lot of crime on the street, she said 'and there's a group of unproductive people who are lazy and dishonest. There should be something done about it. But I am not talking about panhandlers or squeegee kids...'

But, of course, police only do what they're told. Perhaps our politicians should listen to their own legal advisors - and even the police, who seem to know a little more about the real world.

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Prince Rupert BC – The train hopping was easier than expected – and at times much harder too. Alone here -- just as I had started in Winnipeg June 4th of this year. But I don’t feel lonely because I’ve met many interesting people. Actually, this place is so new I’m the only one here. Even the owners are elsewhere tonight. The comfort of this brand new hostel, The Black Rooster Roadhouse, is a sharp contrast to some of the experiences of the adventure I experienced.

If you come to Prince Rupert I recommend the place, a fully renovated former two story apartment block. – Nice owners , Bozena and Stan Sliwa , formerly from Poland, --They have a small restaurant and the food is great. It’s only $20.00 per night. Colour TV and kitchen facilities and showers with lots of hot water. Luxury.

But after several days of cold beer, soft pillows, color TV, and boring yuppies who travel by ferry and cruise ship I’m itching for the rails again. CN is busy here – a brand new container port is in the works (A billion dollar venture). Just east of town is the gigantic grain facility where grain trains are emptied for shipment of their cargo to Asia and elsewhere. VIA rail runs a brisk business all summer bringing in loads of yuppies and their yapping poodles.

It sure is a nice little city though. Grand Trunk Railroad founded the city as its westernmost terminal over a hundred years ago. It’s populated by friendly Vietnamese, Chinese, Native Indians, and whites. Haida and Tsimshian Indians have called this paradise home for centuries.

Although it’s often wet it is often just drizzle – A wet misty rain. Interestingly, Prince Rupert is known as one of the rainiest places in Canada -- but now now. Actually the weather has been great here. Sometimes the sky descends to meet the earth with a supernatural mist that hovers in small blotches then they vanish like ghosts of the past in search of a permanent home. When it’s sunny it’s a paradise. Just about anywhere you go you can see beautiful panoramas. Rupert is built on the sides of hillsides similar to St John’s Newfoundland.

Beautiful multi coloured perennials are everywhere and you can look up and see bald eagles soaring high above the city. Canada Day here saw Vietnamese, Filipinos, and others serving out their ethnic foods downtown in front of a spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean. Local folk musicians played and I took pictures of kids climbing the tall statue of a pioneer who holds a ship’s wheel while pointing to the horizon.

Canada! I had felt like I was home. But when I hear the whistle blow at night south east of town I feel a yearning for a different kind of home -- One that runs on rails. It’s a warm feeling – like you get when you take a good long gulp of Southern Comfort. It’s a friendly feeling, one I’ve become familiar with now. My next trip will be down the Fraser River by BC Rail (Now owned by CN) to Vancouver, a city I won't be staying long in. Grew up there. Bad childhood memories. I mistakenly named a recent article 'Hopping the Fraser Canyon' - even though it was a hop from Jasper to Van - a route that actually follows the Thompson River but does run along the Fraser south of Hope BC. The only reason to go there is to search for the wanderers.

I am merely an interloper into a world that belongs to others. During my four month journey I hope to interview the wanderers where I find them. That is my real aim. Whether to publish it in book for or otherwise I don’t know. I am always very happy when I run into them. Wherever I am in Canada my eye is always searching for young people with dark clothing and dirty fingernails. I met Speedy in Winnipeg just before I departed. She is heading east to experience life on the east coast for a change and wants to travel for a year before settling down again. Some of them head east for the summer and west for winter where the climate in Canada is milder in winter. Pirate is different. I met him in Winnipeg in May too. He prefers to head west in summer although he lives in Ontario in the winter. A damned good banjo player he makes a good wage on the streets of our cities. Ryan , from Winnipeg was heading east I gave him my tent since I have bought a bivy sack which was quite usefull against the rain of Saskatchewan. John, another good banjo player, I think was heading east -- another guy with years of experience and stories to tell. Unfortunately, I left the notes I made interviewing these folks in Winnipeg in May so I don't have all the names with me now. They are all very interesting individuals who stick together when they meet and are part of Canada's most interesting culture. They are a part of the history and culture of our nation – an interesting and real part of it just as the hobos were. Many of them busk on the street or panhandle, and many others obtain work from temporary labour agencies and then move on again. To them this is a lifestyle and they are experienced and well travelled. I have agonized over writing anything at all about train hopping since bringing attention to it is not serving them with any special help. But the authorities know about train hoppers anyway. The young people who frequent the cars of our Canadian train companies are experienced and very unlikely to get injured. I really believe that. To them it is part of their lives and they should be allowed to continue without intervention. There are others, however, who are merely thrill seekers and can afford to take other modes of transport or take VIA. They should. These are people who have three hundred dollar back packs, and scanners to listen to the train company chatter. As in the past, they have not accepted responsibility for their actions and probably wouldn’t now as they travel the world in search of the next thrill. They’d probably bring a law suit or something if injured. I don’t think train hopping is a sport or thrill; it’s a way of life. Some do it as a sort of hobby because they simply love it; I think that’s o.k., if they’re willing to take the risks.

There is a very small subculture in Canada and the young men and women in this subculture are earthy, experienced, and tough as nails. The number of train hoppers in Canada are far less than in the United States where thousands hop trains. I think the numbers here are only in the dozens possibly. The average age here is younger too I suspect. But most of these regular hoppers are very experienced and many have hopped across our great nation several times. Although some may hold some views of another subculture in the 60s, I don’t think they are similar. The wanderers are more interesting.

The route I followed (By train) is known as the Yellowhead. The highway follows the same general direction as the train route. A Metis scout whose nickname was Yellowhead because of his blonde hair had the route named after him. The Yellowhead Highway starts in Winnipeg in Canada's eastern prairies and ends in Prince Rupert BC on the northwest coast.

Winnipeg Manitoba. Canada. June 4th, 2005. It's dirizzling and threatening to shower again. I arrived at the Fort Rouge yard after midnight and nothing to catch westbound . The only thing that happend was that a small group of young morons came running through the yard throwing rocks at the train that headed west earlier. I didn't come out of the bush then or I probably could have caught it - an intermodal. They were actually trying to lob rocks into the ends of the 48s for some reason. Perhaps they knew people might be there? It always amazes me how cowardly and vicious people are when they face someone who can't fight back.

I had be pleased , however , to see how some of the the wanderers handled obnoxious well-offs who almost always stumbled out of nightclubs and tried to harass them each night. What they often got was something different than a meek submission which most homeless people and panhandlers on the street respond with. The wanderers often kick their ignorant buts - much to the surprise of the drunken rich pricks. And they said there was no justice in the world! One more reason to admire those rascals! If for nothing else, I admire them for that.

I tired of waiting and slept in the bushes and next day watched and waited. I know a few people have been fined in this yard so you have to be very careful. I finally caught out around 5 A.M. - almost 28 hours after I had begun waiting there. Probably could have caught out earlier than that but was overcautious I guess. It began raining as I hopped aboard. But after a few hours the rain stopped and I began taking pictures with my digital camera. The sun came out and I took off my socks and boots and they dried by the time we reached Saskatoon Saskatchewan around 6. 30 P.M.. I don't remember going through Melville - I was sleeping at the crew change.

It was a long hike into town. The CN yard is south west of town a ways. I slept under a wheelchair ramp of an Anglican church there. The surrounding bushes hid me nicely. I took the bus up to Prince Albert and my aunt and cousin picked me up . I spent a few days visiting my dad and stepmother as well as my brother. I stayed in a hotel one night across from the CP yard and notice three engines in ther yard but no cars at all. My brother told me that the engines just come up to Nipawn and then turn around and go south again I suppose working along the way and building grainers.

Saskatoon isn't a crew change but most trains seem to stop there anyway. It's a nice little city of about 200,000 people. Saskatoon is a very green city with lots of trees. Although it's a city with a bad reputation for injustice i.e.(David Milgaard) and the police 'midnight rides' (They drove Native Indians at night to the edge of town in winter where a couple of them froze to death). But the average person there is o.k. and it's a city worth visiting.

I caught out from Saskatoon a few days later. I only waited for four hours and caught a nice 48 again. I arrived in Edmonton at around 3 P.M the next day. I took a lot of pictures. It's beautiful scenery (If you like the prairies) between Saskatoon and Edmonton. It took about 12 hours I guess. It was in Edmonton that things took a turn for the worst - or the humorous, depending on your viewpoint. I spent a couple of days in Edmonton and then attempted to hop out to the west but it didn't go exactly the way I planned.

After spending a couple of days in Edmonton I attempted to catch out to the beautiful Jasper resort town which is situated in the mountains near the British Columbia border to the west. But I made a common error - I became impatient and got tired of waiting in the bushes. I waited for about seven hours only but nothing was heading west and they were building trains on the south side of the Calder yard where I was so attempting to catch anything there anyway seemed unlikely. But in the early morning I saw a nice train with 48s I had missed. I didn't know exactly which direction it was going but I thought in my impatience that if it was going east I didn't care. It was much easier to catch out in Saskatoon anyway and I could get some sleep. That's exactly what happened. About 12 hours later I was back in Saskatoon.

I only waited a few short hours when a west bound ground to a halt and I got it. One problem , however, was an old couple who had seen me make my way across the large field south of the train yard. I had walked to a grocery store about a mile north of the train yard. They had driven by on the road and seen me crossing the field with my back pack and stopped and hidden in the bushes to the west. When I passed them they were pretending to be sitting on lawn chairs doing nothing. But when I went passed them on the road they got in their old pick up and pulled out partly onto the road and commenced watching me. I was so pissed off I walked up to them to ask what the hell they were spying on me for but they jumped into their pick up and took off but stopped a few hundred yards down the road. It never ceases to amaze me how snoopy and petty people are if you are any little way different - or poor.

I was not watching , however, when the train departed westbound and did't notice it take a slow turn to the left and thus southwards. 'Damn!' I thought, another mistake. But going to Regina or Calgary didn't seem too big a problem though so I relaxed and enjoyed the scenery.

Calgary is one of Canada's wealthiest cities and holds the Calgary stampede each year, a big event with people visiting from around the world. Unfortunately I couldn't stick around for the festivities cause I was wanting to reach the west coast so I would be able to go from coast to coast in my adventure. But I was to make another humorous blunder and spend two days in the rain for nothing.

I found the CP yard no problem and noticed a lot of grainers in the hugh yard just south east of downtown. But I waited all day for nothing again. It was raining a lot on and off too, I had actually wanted to go past southern Alberta because of the record breaking rainfall dousing the southern region. The second day I waited patiently again having learned my lesson in Edmonton - 'Be patient, something will depart eventually.' But after 48 hours I realized something was wrong so I approached a crew member and after startling him inadvertently got the news - '...nothing is moving west or north, the tracks are out because of rain..' How stupid of me! I had spent the night previously in an old abandoned car with no rear windshield and it had been cold and raining like hell!

So I got a Greyhound to Banff just a couple of hours west nestled in the Rocky Mountains. It was frustrating there too since a few intermodels did stop but nothing ridedable at all. It's the old story with CP - few ridable cars and apparently no grainers even. But the stopover was not uneventful, however. The RCMP, Canada's rural police force questioned me as I slept in the bush. I had been a little perturbed because the officer did a careful questioning of me. "There is no rash of crime here is there , " I had complained. He told me that there was a peeping tom in the neighborhood. "I saw somebody last night," I told him. He asked me his description and it fit the guy they were looking for to a T. I had seen him 'creeping' around at 5 A.M. and he had passed me jut 20 feet away but had not seen me since I was covered in my 5' x 12' camoflage blanket. Hey, my contribution to society!

The next night in Banff I decided to sleep in the bush near the highway and keep away from cops and peeping toms. I awoke again at around 5 A.M to the sound of a train whistle. Then I heard barking and yelping all around me. I turned my maglight on and shone it in a 360 degree circle - all around me I saw yellow eyes gleaming at me. 'To hell with it,' I thought, 'I'm too damned tired, they can eat me if they want.' I soon fell back to sleep. I don't know if they were wolves or coyotes but they must have thought I was too big to eat since they didn't gobble me up.

I hitched to Jasper the next morning and got a ride with a young fellow who had just broken up with his girl friend so I played the understanding counselour from Banff the Jasper. I spent a few days there and then caught a train to Prince George. I asked a crew member where it was headed because most go south to Vancouver - I wanted to go to Prince Rupert. I had no sooner gotten into the open boxcar than it began to pour like there was no tomorrow. It was about 8 P.M when I caught out. I managed a few pictures though. The scenery is nice towards Prince George and I had a big bottle of Colt 45 to enjoy . Arrived into Prince George about 10. 30 A.M the next day.

Upon arriving in Prince George I waited in the boxcar because I thought it would continue west. It didn't , shortly after arrival they started working on it and after several violent kabangs I fell asleep and had a nap. I must have been tired because the banging didn't bother me too much at all. I was glad I had remembered some wise advice - Never rest your head against the far walls - you could get a big headache! Around 8 P.M I ventured off the train and west of the yard. I caught out on a westbound grainer around 12: 30 A.M. and arrived in beautiful Prince Rupert B.C. on the coast earlier than I had expected, around 1 :30 P.M.

What I find the most exiting is actually waiting for the train when you know it's coming, seeing the headlights and then as the engines pass with their deep throaty rumble, your adrenalin surges and you make your move. What an experience! There's nothing like it. But the journey's not over. I am headed south to Vancouver in search of the wanderers.

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