God Help The King (and his men)
God Help The King (and his men)
How did I end up suing the King of England? A conspiracy to convict an innocent man.
There I was in 2021, drafting from my notebook at my dining room table, a modest living, fixing my truck amongst other things - as my goats grazed at my off-grid fledgling farm in The Grove, British Columbia. What could go wrong…
On June 4th 2021, I had gone to town to get truck paint at Lordco - just after getting back home I was held at gun-point, assault rifles pointed at my head while neighbors watching in shock and awe!
To tell this story, we have to rewind to get to the beginning!
After going through a messy separation in 2016 with a young child involved, my ex-partner decided she wanted to drag me into the mud along with her. I decided early on in that separation that I wasn’t going to play in the mud, that I was going to do something better with my life, so I kept going and developed my business in architecture & design.
I did everything I could to keep my son in my life and managed to keep my little farm going. After a couple years of learning the ins and outs of the Canadian family court system and having mud slung at me - from self-representation in court to taking my complaints about bias in the family law system all the way to the Chief Judges office - I eventually decided to do something different. It was in 2018 that I chose to run for City Council. I didn't win a seat as a councilor, but I did learn about politics
The 100 Mile Free Press published some rather ridiculous pictures of me with my long hippie hair! The press covered the full election results and had a live blog on what was going on. It was a lively all candidates race that year (2018) and there were interviews with the candidates in the District of 100 Mile.
People kept telling me that they themselves could “Never bear to run in politics for fear of losing”. The thought always stuck with me but I was never afraid of losing, I figured the scary thing is where a lack of responsible leadership could lead us. Although I did not get a seat on council, I got both positive and negative attention and learned a lot.
When COVID-19 came around the following year, the fun police locked us all down. To counter the lack of fun, myself and some friends initiated the garden parties. These were a wild success! It was and still is a group of volunteers who shared enthusiasm for getting together and growing food. It involved going to each other's yards, helping each other put in gardens and showing up in the community garden. We got together, shared intentions, and chatted about ideas. An observation that caught my attention through all of this was the natural semi-autonomous self-organizing nature of all the people and the activity. From inception to the setting of little things in motion to letting them grow into something that no one could stop, we had all created a growing group of enthusiasts and community activity.
From running for council to establishing a seed exchange with the garden parties, my name ended up in the paper a few times between 2018-2021. This was just before things started to take a turn for the worse.
In May of 2021, I was facing some real challenges after my ex, had without notice, put a protection order on me so I couldn't speak to my son- the reasons for which I didn't find out for another year.
I had been dealing with serious family law issues and conflict, my ex did things like send the RCMP to harass me with “wellness checks” at my house regularly whenever my son would come home. Short-story, my young son was suffering from the conflict and I was trying to get him the help he needed. I went to the MCFD (Ministry of Children and Family Development) because when I read the name, Ministry of Children and Family Development, I thought they were going to help, my ex had gotten to them first back in 2017 and made me out to be an absolute monster.
By 2021 the local MCFD office had painted me with a broad brush saying that I was not just a problem, but THE problem. At one point it got so bad that MCFD social workers were known to talk about me and my issues publicly at social events like back-yard barbecues. Was it because I'm a guy? Because I’m intelligent enough to read their policies and ask questions? Was it because I ran for council? What did I even do besides advocate? Was it because I am eccentric? Because I lived off grid and consciously chose to depart from the conventional norm? Were they jealous? Whatever it was, towards the end of it the local office appeared to realize the assumptions might be wrong, but still they would never change or veer from the original assertions or look at facts. They got close once, but could never get to a resolution meeting between the multiple agencies which had become involved (MCFD and RCMP, CFEC, AXIS…) in the ”best interest of my son”.
Finally, in May of 2021, I had managed to get my son to Srg. Brad who is trained in Step-wise Interviews. He had concluded that my son needed to go to the SCAN (Suspected Child Abuse and Negligence) Clinic, but the MCFD would not act and the SCAN Clinic never got a referral - it just never happened.
It was shortly after- on May 19 2021 - that an ex-parte protection order was issued without any notice to me (that means I couldn’t see or talk to my son, with no notice or reason given). This was just days after the RCMP Officer had recommended the SCAN referral and resolution meeting to the MCFD.
In the phone call that got me arrested I was seeking a resolution meeting, as is laid out in the Ministry policies. I had a very decent telephone call with a complaint specialist in an attempt to arrange a meeting, or so I thought ... It was in that call where I described all sorts of issues, which were at that time, making it into the local newspaper and radio! The cause of some of these issues were identical to my problems with MCFD and soon the RCMP.
One fellow was so upset over issues with his children and with family law that he kicked in a MCFD worker's door; demanding access to his children, carrying a modified weapon and allegedly wearing body armor. I referenced the fact that some of these issues could be avoided if the MCFD workers would take the time to simply listen to people's concerns and have collaborative resolution meetings, which is what I, myself, was seeking. I made sure to say that I was in no way threatening to do any harm, it's just what I noticed was happening and frankly I was upset for the very same damn reasons! Not only was I upset, my youngest son was suffering and their negligence was very much to blame.
The call I made on June 4th 2021 (posted in next paragraph), although it lead to my arrest that evening, did not contain any threats. Listen for your-self! The same day local 100 Mile Free Press allowed a release about the “RCMP’s high-risk take down” of a dangerous man. By the time I was released from jail on July 7th random claims that I was going to “kill social workers and their families” were already flying around the small town of 100 Mile - obviously caused by false allegations that were negligently investigated. All of this could leave one wondering … wouldn’t it have been easiest for the local MCFD Office and the Family Courts if I were to have just disappeared? After all it was the Office of the Chief Judge that leaked my private complaint documents to the Sheriff Service which then, in contravention of the RCMP act, were used by a corporal to …
substantiate search warrants on my property looking for evidence of “threatening communications” on electronic devices such as my workstation and all of my backup hard drives along with some ancient dusty computers (these goons cleaned out all the gear for my architectural business based on false evidence arising from a phone call).
The Call that got me arrested - I sure sound scary …
At any rate, on June 4 2021, I was indeed arrested in a high-risk take-down in front of my residence after being enticed off my property under the guise of attending “a friendly meeting” at the detachment with Sergeant Brad McKinnon. Yes indeed, the same officer I had been working with for a couple months towards him assessing my son for a SCAN clinic referral.
Interestingly, a few months earlier, Sgt. McKinnon had offered me a job as a “Community Intervention Liaison Officer”. He said he “could not think of a better man for the job”. I turned it down because my design business was doing quite well and I am not sure if it was a cop stooge position or what?? At any rate, I was already lining up to hire people for the business, things in entrepreneurial design were going well.
After so many “Wellness Checks” by the RCMP between 2018-2021 I wondered … if I had taken the Liaison job, would I have gotten arrested? It goes to show there are really more questions than answers in my story so far.
Back to June 4th. I left my property to meet with Sgt Brad, instead I was pulled over just after leaving my driveway on the side of the road, with assault rifles pointed at my head and about five or six RCMP cruisers swarming in front of my vehicle. There was also an unmarked white pickup on my bumper. There was no escape but death.
So many questions ran through my mind, the RCMP are supposed to be the good guys, right? They are going to explain themselves, aren't they? They must know that I am on my way to a meeting with Sgt. Brad McKinnon? Why is this happening? Is this because of the crack in my windshield? Did they have a mistaken identity? I ended up detained through the weekend until Monday June 7. It wasn't until later, while I was in cells, that I found out why I had been arrested.
Sitting in the cells, I could hear the guards walking up and down the hallway carrying shackles and saying, “When are we transporting the prisoner?” “What do you mean by ‘transport’?” I thought. “What do you mean by prisoner?” “Where are you taking me and why?”… many thoughts going through my mind.
I hadn’t even done nothing! Not even anything! Rather than a lawyer they kept giving me some Crown Duty Counsel worker in Williams Lake who told me to just “sit tight and wait for the bail hearing”. But I knew that wasn't good enough, I needed representation. I kept getting the same duty counsel worker every time I asked for a lawyer, even though I specified clearly I needed representation not duty counsel “let me talk to someone else” I demanded. On June 6, my second morning in cells, duty counsel appeared for the initial bail hearing. I was shocked, it was as if they were trying to put me in jail themselves for all the good it did. I needed a lawyer, somebody who was going to represent my actual interest in court. I needed a list of phone numbers or names or the Legal Aid line or someone who would actually GET ME A LAWYER!
I had to get smart to get that to happen at our local detachment.
Eventually I decided to quit asking for a lawyer, I got a little more quiet. I did yoga and meditation and I worked out all weekend, because what else is someone supposed to do when in jail? As I got into this groove, I decided to go on a bit of a food strike, so I stopped eating the Hungry Man meals they were bringing me and said, "I want an apple". I got a response to the effect of, “This isn't a hotel. You don't get to choose what you eat.”
Bottom line was I had stopped eating- so they brought me some really nice rice bowls and some fresh fruit. It was glorious.
Later that day, I decided I needed a shower, as I had been working on my truck when I was arrested and I was filthy. I took off, folded them nicely, and put them on the concrete bench that I had in there. When the guard came and looked through the little peep-hole to check on me, she said, “Put your clothes back on!”
My response to her was, “I can't. They're filthy.”She rolled her eyes and came back later telling me, “We're going to arrange for you to have a shower. You've been here more than 24 hours.”
They cleaned out the shower room which was being used for storage and let me have a very icy shower. I kept banging on the wall and saying turn on the hot, so they did. They put me back in my cell and came to check on me later. I was still standing there wearing only my underwear.
The guard said, "Put your clothes on!"
To that I responded, “I can't. They're filthy.”
Again she rolled her eyes and left. The same guard came back later and said, “Usually we don't do this, but give me your clothes and I'll wash them for you.” She was very nice. All the guards were very nice. We joked a lot and that made it bearable.
Perhaps they sensed that I wasn't much for criminality? I’ve heard they see lots of people in cells acting a fool and all sorts of ridiculousness can ensue when people are under the high stress of being confined. Could they tell that I was innocent?
The guards brought my clothes back, nice and clean, and I put them on. They even brought me a toothbrush, which was very kind. All of a sudden my living conditions had gotten a lot better.
On Monday morning, the 7th, I knew it was my last chance to try to get counsel, so I demanded to speak to Sgt McKinnon, who had overseen this whole debacle in the first place. I told him that I still didn't have a lawyer. He acted shocked, which I found a little bit surprising considering he was the one who originally asked me out for a meeting before having me held at gunpoint … At no point did Sgt. McKinnon or anyone at the detachment bother to investigate the recordings of the allegations of threats. You see, I had the calls recorded on my cell phone (after being dragged through the mud for years by my ex and MCFD, I had learned to record my calls). If they would have bothered to let me open my phone, I could have played the calls showing them clearly that I had simply called the Ministry requesting a resolution meeting.
If anyone had bothered to let me : that entire dog & pony (and clown) show and the ensuing year of hell could have been avoided. Eventually Sgt.McKinnon came and stood at the door of the cell and got out his phone. He said, “ Who do you want me to contact?”
I got him to get a hold of one of my friends who later became the love of a lifetime. He texted her and she ended up linking me with George Wool who is the absolute People's Champion. She had already been working since June 4th with George to first figure out where I was and then get the ball rolling to prevent my shipment to Prince George Detention Center.
While the RCMP never did allow me to speak to George ahead of the court hearing, he appeared in the final bail hearing and I got released on conditions.
George had to get the information he needed to defend me through accounts of my friends regarding my odd disappearance and the similar fact evidence in cases he had seen before…
To say I was or am grateful to him is an understatement, I had never spoken to the guy before and he managed to keep me out of prison on the good faith of my friends and network. In the hearing, George said there was a recording of the call, but no evidence was accepted. I was released on conditions which were extreme even for more severe cases and given the fact that I was innocent I was left in complete shock. I was essentially on house arrest for another year while I awaited trial.
Still, I fared better than other innocent people, some of whom are now dead, others I have met who ended up in Section 5 Remand detention centers for months on end. For those who don’t know, the politics of Prison are no joke - the worst situation possible: institutionalization.
My conditions made it so I couldn't travel to town except for about two hours twice a week. I also couldn’t go past the intersection at the highway, which meant I couldn’t get to any jobs outside of the tiny hamlet of Forest Grove. How is a guy supposed to survive like that, especially when the RCMP had seized all of my work computers? What had I even done, other than advocate?
Needless to say, my livelihood was destroyed but I still had to survive. Leading up to trial, the Crown prosecutor on my case claimed there was “evidence of threats”. On May 9 2022, I finally had the charges stayed, as it turned out the Clown *ahem* I mean Crown Prosecutor had lied and the fact was there was a recorded call which proved my innocence - an impossible feat of law!
When the RCMP returned to me the cell phone that contained the recording of the call I played it for the investigating officers. Those guys had a backroom bet going that I was innocent. They won the bet.
I sent copies of the call to my lawyer and he sent it for review to the Crown Council who also agreed there were no threats. About 6 months later a stay of proceedings was issued and my bail conditions were dropped. I was now free to travel again and to find work, but I was ruined, I could barely afford food, let alone fuel to travel.
Long story short, in one year I had been criminalized, smeared by the media and my reputation shredded by the local buzz saw of public opinion. My name was destroyed in this small town and my life was turned inside-out, not to mention the stress -- hospitalization levels of stress.
Two heart attacks, the daily fight against crippling levels of depression and post traumatic stress not to mention the pain I was seeing in my son through his mother's and her partners' war against me and then the total loss of being able to be there for him at all.
The months of the RCMP needlessly holding all of my computer equipment from my drafting company ruined that business. Work for my clients was incomplete and they had all moved on. None of us were pleased about any of it.
With the help of George, we got my computers back and we waited for more time to go by while gathering more information. I went through the CRCC (Civilian Review and Complaints Commission) for the RCMP. They were to conduct “thorough investigations” around the conduct of the officers who had arrested me that day.
It turns out that when the RCMP is investigating the RCMP, they're not going to find that anything has gone wrong at the hands of the RCMP, even though the CRCC says that they are impartial. The officers that conducted the investigations were not impartial nor the commission. They even brought in a special investigator who is not an RCMP member to conduct the investigations for them and it took them well over a year to finish most of it. In the end they found “they could not substantiate any of my complaints” and it looked like the RCMP hadn't done anything wrong on June 4th.
Basically the CRCC says it's ok for members of the RCMP to be completely rogue. Just wondering … how would you feel if you were lured out of your house off your property and arrested at gun-point, held without legal representation and then told “that is all perfectly normal”? Would you believe you are living in an upstanding community and country of Law and Order, of civility, or democratic values and ideals that support the best of humanity? Or would you begin to realize you were living in some kind of Hellish Regime which brings the worst nightmares into reality? Would you wonder what the heck is going on!? Would you go quietly into the night? Or would you ride the wave of the hero’s journey and keep going?
Needless to say, I was not entirely convinced of the CRCC’s findings as it is unlawful, illegal, and morally wrong to point firearms at innocent people and hold them without warrant!
During my arrest I was totally compliant, I did not have a weapon, there was no hostage situation, and I was not trying to flee. Why did they keep their rifles pointed at my head while I was complying, lying on the ground and asking what this was about? Why was I being arrested! I'm not sure what it's like in the rest of the world, but in a civil society like Canada it's not supposed to be like this. You're also not supposed to be detained for more than 24 hours - yet I was.
The Crown had issued a Section 5 Remand which would have had me incarcerated in the Prince George Correctional Center for up to two years (Gov pushing it to 5+ years now) while I awaited trial.
Is this a dirty tactic used to disappear people who ask questions? Jumping forward another year to 2023: on May 29, I filed a Supreme Court civil claim against His Majesty, the King, and his servants, the RCMP, in the Kamloops Court Registry.
This claim outlines all of the rights violations and damages that I suffered. Damages, damages, damages.
It's going to be up to the Supreme Court of British Columbia to decide whether or not what happened was lawful, and if we want to reference the law at all, we'll see that It was very much wrong not only that but, against the law!
During this fiasco, the Black Press, including their local branch “100 Mile Free Press” issued media publications on behalf of the RCMP, wherein they published gross misrepresentations of the facts. After my trial in 2022 I got into correspondence with them attempting to correct some of their stories but they never issued any redactions or apologies after publishing. They changed some wording on their online blog after the fact, but it was too late. The court of public opinion had already decided that I was a “gun-toting-lunatic-psychopath who was going to kill people for all sorts of reasons.” I was none of those things! I was being proactive in a bad situation. One social worker even ran around town claiming that I “threatened to kill him and his entire family”. The truth is that I wouldn’t even recognize him or his family if I saw them!
Even today as I write this I heard more of these sorts of accusations coming back to me through the grapevine.
Other people’s reactions to my situation have made me somewhat infamous, which only adds fuel to a fire which I do not want burning!
Will mainstream media pick up the rest of the story? Will the public opinion about me change so that I can live a productive life?? Will anyone be interested in following my case now before the Supreme Court of British Columbia? This might sound like some sort of media attention to correct my own life and in some ways it is. However, I'm not the only one the RCMP have used these exact same tactics on. There are far too many others. I have come to know many of them, some of whom have fallen into depression or addiction, others who have been murdered and still others who have committed suicide (or at least it was made to look like suicide). The families and friends of these people are everywhere.
Fortunately for myself, while I did not escape arrest, I did escape bottomless depression and heart failure.
I'm deeply grateful for all the support that I've had from people who have taken the time to see through all of these allegations. The allegations themselves caused a lot of doubt and destruction to the reputation of my character, especially in such a small town. This has affected people who are close to me -- people who wondered for almost a year if what I said was true or if I was just pretending to be “nice” and actually am a monster who can't contain himself.
Even my own family has doubted me and my closest relationships were challenged. At one point or another most people wrestled to be sure if I was guilty or telling the truth.
Through it all, I suppose I could say there's no better teacher than constant self-examination. I am very grateful that most of the people I have come to know, have taken the time to ask questions. I have had to be patient with the rest of the community while they catch up and find out who I really am and what’s really been going on.
Very few people have taken the time to question these sorts of things and come to me and find out the rest of the story. Now it's up to me and my friends and allies to expose all of the truth, not just for myself but for other people who have suffered the same things and do not have the capacity to deal with it. Meanwhile the mud-slinging campaign of my ex and her boyfriend continues, with my son in the middle suffering the worst fate of a child : parental alienation. I love my son, and the saddest part of my whole story is the part where my son was alienated during what was supposed to be a re-unification when the protection order expired in 2022 and I was fully exonerated.
Although I have been financially ruined and I am absolutely destitute, I have been refined by the process. The truth has to come out and it will prevail. I learned in cells that one’s freedom is not some guarantee. Some slam-dunk, home-run, just because people think or say words like freedom and democracy.
Liberty is something that must be earned, diligently, on every inch of the earth, in every walk of life, and sometimes we have to rise to fight for it. This endeavor always leads to victory and in the end not just for myself but for everybody who's been affected by these or similar egregious transgressions whether they were the one committing the crime or the one affected by it.
The systemic problems that allowed issues - such as the ones I have faced - to happen in the first place must be addressed and the breaches of duty of the officers of law must be seen so that we can learn from them collectively. This unlawfulness needs to end if we want to live in a functional society. This might be one big lawsuit and a long period of time in my own life - but in reality it is just a drop in the bucket for everybody else. The more drops we can get in that bucket, the better the chances for everybody that we can build a better system.
Time and time again I have heard people inside the system say “it’s hopelessly broken”.
I say, “the gaps in the system turn into cracks so deep that people's lives fall into them”. These cracks cannot go unnoticed and cannot go without remedy.
If you're interested in helping or contributing in any way, every little bit will go towards the work of justice and remedy to these systemic issues.
Feel free to contact me if you'd like more information on this story or if you want to pledge any amount of support.
south.cariboo.campus@gmail.com
I am looking for financial contributions towards this legal campaign. Everything that I get back from these damages will go into continuing the efforts of the Real Life Network and the newly formed Groundwork Community Service Cooperative and - God and all the higher power willing - help get my youngest son back in my life.
What are we doing? Advocacy, programs, restorative justice, education and support for people just like me to take the need of survival off the table so that we all can flourish by doing what we all are born to do. That's the “freedom” we should all be afforded at birth and it's something I work vigorously towards.
Stay tuned for more updates, and don't forget to check out the podcast on Cameo Radio and The CFM Report to see where all this activity is headed and where it's taking us here in British Columbia, Canada.
My story along with all the other stories is so much more than just this one set of instances. Chime in, get heard.
It’s time to work together.
Cam