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This is not an attack on Mr. Rinaldi in the least. In fact, his explanation and personal accounts of the implications of the H.S.T lead the listener to believe and trust this is not a fool-proof system and it is not a cure all for financial instability. Mr. Rinaldi was honest and compassionate about his concerns for the average citizen and consumer, which should be the role of every minister of public welfare. But how far will compassion and sympathy go? Will it keep money in our pocket books?
Amidst the understanding this was a public forum however, you couldn’t shake the feeling that positivity was being washed over the discussion. Mr. Rinaldi dominated the question period with anecdotes, and diffused attendant outcries with humour and tangential case examples. Attendant complaints and arguments, while answered by Mr. Rinaldi, were supplemented over top with rebuttals from members of his own office, an impressive, albeit suspicious, defense tactic.
We all use and need public services; governments need taxes to administer these. There is no debate about that. Canada is provided with some of the best services and the lowest costs in the world. We have a relatively affordable cost of living in terms of fuel, food, materials and consumer products. This is, in part, because of the government we’ve put in place.
We also have a $27.4 billion deficit in Ontario at approximately 2.5% interest with billions of dollars in buyouts on the table and some already passed on. Someone needs to front the cost.
This is where taxpayers come in handy and Mr. Rinaldi claims that returns will be seen with the H. S. T. anywhere between 5 and 10 years. He adds that using the H.S.T as an investment will produce jobs and growth and keep Canada competitive.
Competition it seems is a real push in the H.S.T agenda, where small businesses and corporations alike can benefit, in part, by now claiming H.S.T on all business expenses where they lost the cost of the P.S.T before. This is a real benefit where, depending on the size of your operation, dollars can be saved and traced back to your pockets.
Additionally, R.S.T (retail sales taxes) fronted by retailers on all business inputs (materials and services employed by the business) will be reshuffled into a V.A.T (Value added tax) at all levels from primary producers, to manufacturers to retailers. These savings are assumed to carry on through to the consumer.
The H.S.T also will simplify administration through one set of books, one remittance, one audit etc., and thus less paperwork.
Corporations will be provided $4.5 billion in tax relief over three years through corporate income tax cuts, eliminating surtaxes, and exemptions from the corporate minimum tax. This relief will translate into income tax rate cuts. Businesses can also benefit from property tax relief through a marginal reduction in the education levies of property taxes.
Individuals in the lowest and middle income brackets will receive $4 billion in transition relief, rebating couples and parents up to $1000.00 ,and singles up to $300.00.
Personal income taxes for those brackets (i.e $0-$37,106/year) will see a reduction in rates from 6.05 to 5.05% this year. There is an additional $270 million in property tax credits and up to $260.00/adult in sales tax credits - both applying to low and middle income earners.
Bear in mind though that the aforementioned material was provided indeed by revenue Canada and is intended for you to focus on the savings and not the expense. They, like any business, highlight roll-backs and discounts and rebates while they tend to wash over the small print and neglect to mention embedded costs.
According to this handout, benefits will spread across the manufacturing industry, and retailing and small business operations through the aforementioned credits and tax relief.
The worry therefore is for the added expense for the average consumer and citizen. While not written on the lines of this report, the H.S.T. will apply to all goods and services that have existing G.S.T today. The breakdown provided suggests that 83% of goods and services taxes will remain unchanged. It’s the 17% that Ontarians question.
All fuels and energy inputs will have additional taxes as of July 1, 2010; this is the fuel for your car, or truck or farm implement, and the heat and hydro for your home. The H.S.T is applied on top of existing excise and fuel taxes, so we’re taxed on the taxes.
Most private professional services and administration costs like insurance brokerages, public transit, hair dressers, and realtors will add H.S.T to the purchase of their service, alcohol fees become taxes. These costs are paid at point of sale and carried all year until taxes are filed. Months afterward your rebate (or relief as it’s called) comes in, too little, too late.
So the crux of the matter - businesses save through harmonizing Retail Sales Tax at all levels of production. They can claim all taxes on all business inputs where they formerly could only claim G.S.T and not P.S.T. This presumably, will allow for significant savings in business, thus opening up opportunities for employment, creating jobs, and in the course of things, reducing the cost to the consumer, making business more competitive on a local, national and international scale.
However, these companies have to front the cost of tax inputs, as does the average consumer, substantially contributing to bigger energy bills and building upon embedded costs in the production of all goods and services. So in the end, you are no better off than you were before. Saving money here to spend money there.
Reports circulated by Revenue Canada claim that the average Ontarian will experience a neutral or very marginal change in expense in the coming years, totaling no more than $50-75 either in deficit or surplus. Estimates claim that the lowest income earners will benefit $90/year on average, and the top income earners in Ontario will have to pay $390 more annually.
If this is the case, most of us can sleep easy tonight. While the outcome of harmonized taxes and building a more competitive environment for Ontario (and Canadian) businesses has yet to unfold, if we want to benefit from H.S.T we better plan on starting up a business and/or make less money, or perhaps we can be charmed into complacency.
EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY!
By: Michelle Chiunti, D.V.M.
Emergencies happen in life – despite the many safeguards we put in place to prevent them. And trust me, after 22 years in practice, just when you thought you have heard them all, one will still come along to stump you. The question with animals are – who and when do you call in regards to an emergency; what is considered an emergency; what can you do before leaving to see a veterinarian; and how do you safely transport your valued four-legged family member.
Unlike urban centers, small communities do not have 24-hour emergency veterinary facilities. Before you have an emergency, you should question your normal veterinarian in regards to their availability of emergency services. It is mandated by law in Ontario that all veterinarians must have arrangements for emergency veterinary care. In recent years, the “James Herriot” country vet is becoming extinct. Many veterinarians attempt to have a more normal life by sharing on-call with neighbouring practitioners. Still others choose to forward their clients to emergency care facilities such as in Whitby and Kingston, Ontario. Our practice has resisted this change by employing enough veterinarians in the practice to share the on-call, and cover emergencies for our regular clients. However, in a time of stress when you have an emergency with your pet, you should have your veterinarian’s phone number handy and know what emergency care procedures they have in place.
What is considered an emergency with your pet? My best advice to our clients is, if you are in doubt, call and talk to a veterinarian. I have been told, and told many, that there is no such thing as a stupid question, and it never hurts to ask! Saying that, I will outline some of the higher priority emergencies with your dogs and cats:
• Any animal experiencing laboured breathing and/or fainting is considered an emergency. The causes of laboured breathing and fainting are usually life threatening such as acute heart failure, fluid in the chest cavity, fluid around the heart, anaphylaxis, diaphragmatic hernias, or internal bleeding.
• Any animal that is vomiting uncontrollably for longer than a couple of hours and unable to hold water down will quickly dehydrate. This is especially important if the animal also seems painful, lethargic, and/or bloated in its abdomen. It is possible that it may have an acute abdominal crisis or an obstruction.
• If your pet has a laceration bleeding profusely, a veterinarian should see it promptly. The most common lacerations that we see with uncontrollable bleeding are in the foot or ear. Many foot or ear lacerations are very small and seem insignificant, however, unless they are properly stitched – they will bleed all over your white carpet for the next three days! Always apply pressure to any bleeding wound while transporting your animal to a veterinarian.
• All eye problems are considered an emergency in our practice – especially when the eye is hanging on your Shih Tzu’s cheek! We consider eye abnormalities an emergency because many conditions of the eye require prompt treatment in order to save the sight and viability of the eye.
• Any animal’s complete inability to walk is definitely an emergency. This could mean a vertebral disc rupture, a blood clot to the limbs, shock, or severe pain. Time is of the essence in treating these problems.
• A dangling limb that your pet is unable to bear weight on is consistent with a fracture and you should call your veterinarian. Saying this, the injured limbs of many animals may be non-weight bearing only temporarily. Try to assess the amount of pain being experienced by your animal before jumping to the phone. Many lameness problems can be solved with some rest and aspirin or anti-inflammatory of some kind. Always call your veterinarian before administering an anti-inflammatory unless it has been used before. Tylenol or acetaminophen will kill a cat, and some dosages of anti-inflammatories are toxic.
• Toxin ingestion is a common emergency. Most of the time the owners are unaware of the problem until the signs of toxicity develop. However, when you know that your Chihuahua just ate that whole two pound box of Belgian dark chocolates under the Christmas tree; or your lab thought the rat bait bar was a treat; or your friends car just proceeded to blow a radiator in the driveway losing all of its antifreeze to your dog’s lips; or your neighbor forgot to tell your pet that they just fertilized their lawn; or you dropped your blood pressure medication on the floor and the dog or cat is faster than you these days – you need to call a veterinarian right away. If you know that your pet has just gotten into something toxic within the last hour, except for gasoline or oils, it is safe to make them vomit. This is easily accomplished with 2% hydrogen peroxide. Dependent upon the size of your animal, you can administer one to three tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide and repeat it within ten minutes to induce vomition. Many toxins cause your animal to vomit, become depressed, become ataxic, become disoriented, start seizuring, or cause muscle tremors. Most of the above scenarios still require veterinary intervention even after vomiting. Once your animal is safe and normal again, many of these emergencies become the stories told every year at family gatherings!
• A seizure is an emergency when it is lasting longer than fifteen minutes or is occurring frequently throughout the day. Since animals don’t drive or operate heavy machinery, the occasional seizure is inconsequential and seizures do occur commonly in dogs and cats. A seizure should be addressed with your veterinarian at your earliest convenience, but doesn’t constitute an emergency unless it is within the parameters listed above.
• Pale mucous membranes and lethargy are always a concern in any animal. The causes of acute blood loss or shock are many, and require immediate care and treatment to correct if possible. The mucous membranes on an animal can be checked by lifting the lip and looking for pink (not white, purple or gray) gum color above the animal’s teeth or the conjunctiva of the eye. If your animal normally has a pink nose, and it is suddenly white, this is an indication of anemia or shock.
• Any female pushing strongly for longer than an hour to have a puppy or kitten, is an emergency and will likely require a Caesarean section. Call your veterinarian to ask the normal stages of labour if you are not sure or didn’t realize that she was pregnant in the first place!
• Any male animal straining to urinate is also an emergency. The inability to urinate can kill an animal due to the back-up pressure to the kidneys causing complete kidney failure and severe dehydration within 24 hours.
• Many animals develop bloody diarrhea with minimal physical impediment, so you may be able to delay the phone call to the veterinarian until regular business hours. The causes of bloody diarrhea are usually dietary indiscretion, parasites, or stress. It is considered an emergency when the bloody diarrhea occurs in large quantities, occurs frequently, or the animal is distressed.
• And the obvious and favourite emergency call in the spring and fall in Ontario is your dog’s run-in with Mr. Porcupine! This is an emergency, as the quills are very painful and distressing to the animal, and are easier to remove sooner than later. Please do not cut the quills “to let the air out of them” as it does make them harder to grab and pull out. This is also an emergency that will require your dog to be sedated in most instances due to the extreme discomfort in pulling the quills from its “snout”.
• Then there are the obvious emergency phone calls with our pets when they have been accidentally HBC (hit by car), kicked by the horse/cow, smacked in the head by the bat and ball your kids were playing with, fallen out of the tree from 30 feet up, fallen through the ice in the pond, overheated in the car, jumped through the glass door at the mailman, punctured a stick into themselves while running, gotten into a dog fight... The scenarios for accidents are endless! Keep that phone number handy!
As stated before, the veterinarians are not at their office every minute of every day awaiting your charge’s latest misadventure. Therefore, you will have to make arrangements before leaving your house that a veterinarian will be present to see your pet. During that initial phone call, the veterinarian can and will advise you in regards to any immediate emergency care that can be provided to your animal. This may include wrapping it in a blanket to keep it warm, packing it in ice to cool it down, starting the induction of vomition, applying pressure to a bleeding wound, stabilizing a fracture with a bandage, or lifting it with a blanket as a sling.
Most emergencies will require two people to come in with your animal – one to drive safely, and the other to monitor the patient. Many injured and animals in pain will inadvertently bite the rescuers trying to care for them. If it appears that this may happen, either cover the animal’s head with a large blanket loosely or apply some form of muzzle. It is not worth two trips – one to the veterinary hospital and one to the human hospital.
By in large, what applies for a human emergency will apply as an animal emergency also. In my experience, it is best to remain as calm as possible and think logically. The unfortunate aspect of many emergencies is that they have an unfavorable outcome. Try not to think of this until it is confirmed, but be prepared for anything. If at any point you don’t understand what the veterinarian is saying, do not hesitate to ask about it or have it explained in a different way. The decisions and outcome of an emergency with your pet are all yours ultimately, and you and your pet will live with these decisions for the rest of your lives.
By: Michelle Chiunti, D.V.M.
Emergencies happen in life – despite the many safeguards we put in place to prevent them. And trust me, after 22 years in practice, just when you thought you have heard them all, one will still come along to stump you. The question with animals are – who and when do you call in regards to an emergency; what is considered an emergency; what can you do before leaving to see a veterinarian; and how do you safely transport your valued four-legged family member.
Unlike urban centers, small communities do not have 24-hour emergency veterinary facilities. Before you have an emergency, you should question your normal veterinarian in regards to their availability of emergency services. It is mandated by law in Ontario that all veterinarians must have arrangements for emergency veterinary care. In recent years, the “James Herriot” country vet is becoming extinct. Many veterinarians attempt to have a more normal life by sharing on-call with neighbouring practitioners. Still others choose to forward their clients to emergency care facilities such as in Whitby and Kingston, Ontario. Our practice has resisted this change by employing enough veterinarians in the practice to share the on-call, and cover emergencies for our regular clients. However, in a time of stress when you have an emergency with your pet, you should have your veterinarian’s phone number handy and know what emergency care procedures they have in place.
What is considered an emergency with your pet? My best advice to our clients is, if you are in doubt, call and talk to a veterinarian. I have been told, and told many, that there is no such thing as a stupid question, and it never hurts to ask! Saying that, I will outline some of the higher priority emergencies with your dogs and cats:
• Any animal experiencing laboured breathing and/or fainting is considered an emergency. The causes of laboured breathing and fainting are usually life threatening such as acute heart failure, fluid in the chest cavity, fluid around the heart, anaphylaxis, diaphragmatic hernias, or internal bleeding.
• Any animal that is vomiting uncontrollably for longer than a couple of hours and unable to hold water down will quickly dehydrate. This is especially important if the animal also seems painful, lethargic, and/or bloated in its abdomen. It is possible that it may have an acute abdominal crisis or an obstruction.
• If your pet has a laceration bleeding profusely, a veterinarian should see it promptly. The most common lacerations that we see with uncontrollable bleeding are in the foot or ear. Many foot or ear lacerations are very small and seem insignificant, however, unless they are properly stitched – they will bleed all over your white carpet for the next three days! Always apply pressure to any bleeding wound while transporting your animal to a veterinarian.
• All eye problems are considered an emergency in our practice – especially when the eye is hanging on your Shih Tzu’s cheek! We consider eye abnormalities an emergency because many conditions of the eye require prompt treatment in order to save the sight and viability of the eye.
• Any animal’s complete inability to walk is definitely an emergency. This could mean a vertebral disc rupture, a blood clot to the limbs, shock, or severe pain. Time is of the essence in treating these problems.
• A dangling limb that your pet is unable to bear weight on is consistent with a fracture and you should call your veterinarian. Saying this, the injured limbs of many animals may be non-weight bearing only temporarily. Try to assess the amount of pain being experienced by your animal before jumping to the phone. Many lameness problems can be solved with some rest and aspirin or anti-inflammatory of some kind. Always call your veterinarian before administering an anti-inflammatory unless it has been used before. Tylenol or acetaminophen will kill a cat, and some dosages of anti-inflammatories are toxic.
• Toxin ingestion is a common emergency. Most of the time the owners are unaware of the problem until the signs of toxicity develop. However, when you know that your Chihuahua just ate that whole two pound box of Belgian dark chocolates under the Christmas tree; or your lab thought the rat bait bar was a treat; or your friends car just proceeded to blow a radiator in the driveway losing all of its antifreeze to your dog’s lips; or your neighbor forgot to tell your pet that they just fertilized their lawn; or you dropped your blood pressure medication on the floor and the dog or cat is faster than you these days – you need to call a veterinarian right away. If you know that your pet has just gotten into something toxic within the last hour, except for gasoline or oils, it is safe to make them vomit. This is easily accomplished with 2% hydrogen peroxide. Dependent upon the size of your animal, you can administer one to three tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide and repeat it within ten minutes to induce vomition. Many toxins cause your animal to vomit, become depressed, become ataxic, become disoriented, start seizuring, or cause muscle tremors. Most of the above scenarios still require veterinary intervention even after vomiting. Once your animal is safe and normal again, many of these emergencies become the stories told every year at family gatherings!
• A seizure is an emergency when it is lasting longer than fifteen minutes or is occurring frequently throughout the day. Since animals don’t drive or operate heavy machinery, the occasional seizure is inconsequential and seizures do occur commonly in dogs and cats. A seizure should be addressed with your veterinarian at your earliest convenience, but doesn’t constitute an emergency unless it is within the parameters listed above.
• Pale mucous membranes and lethargy are always a concern in any animal. The causes of acute blood loss or shock are many, and require immediate care and treatment to correct if possible. The mucous membranes on an animal can be checked by lifting the lip and looking for pink (not white, purple or gray) gum color above the animal’s teeth or the conjunctiva of the eye. If your animal normally has a pink nose, and it is suddenly white, this is an indication of anemia or shock.
• Any female pushing strongly for longer than an hour to have a puppy or kitten, is an emergency and will likely require a Caesarean section. Call your veterinarian to ask the normal stages of labour if you are not sure or didn’t realize that she was pregnant in the first place!
• Any male animal straining to urinate is also an emergency. The inability to urinate can kill an animal due to the back-up pressure to the kidneys causing complete kidney failure and severe dehydration within 24 hours.
• Many animals develop bloody diarrhea with minimal physical impediment, so you may be able to delay the phone call to the veterinarian until regular business hours. The causes of bloody diarrhea are usually dietary indiscretion, parasites, or stress. It is considered an emergency when the bloody diarrhea occurs in large quantities, occurs frequently, or the animal is distressed.
• And the obvious and favourite emergency call in the spring and fall in Ontario is your dog’s run-in with Mr. Porcupine! This is an emergency, as the quills are very painful and distressing to the animal, and are easier to remove sooner than later. Please do not cut the quills “to let the air out of them” as it does make them harder to grab and pull out. This is also an emergency that will require your dog to be sedated in most instances due to the extreme discomfort in pulling the quills from its “snout”.
• Then there are the obvious emergency phone calls with our pets when they have been accidentally HBC (hit by car), kicked by the horse/cow, smacked in the head by the bat and ball your kids were playing with, fallen out of the tree from 30 feet up, fallen through the ice in the pond, overheated in the car, jumped through the glass door at the mailman, punctured a stick into themselves while running, gotten into a dog fight... The scenarios for accidents are endless! Keep that phone number handy!
As stated before, the veterinarians are not at their office every minute of every day awaiting your charge’s latest misadventure. Therefore, you will have to make arrangements before leaving your house that a veterinarian will be present to see your pet. During that initial phone call, the veterinarian can and will advise you in regards to any immediate emergency care that can be provided to your animal. This may include wrapping it in a blanket to keep it warm, packing it in ice to cool it down, starting the induction of vomition, applying pressure to a bleeding wound, stabilizing a fracture with a bandage, or lifting it with a blanket as a sling.
Most emergencies will require two people to come in with your animal – one to drive safely, and the other to monitor the patient. Many injured and animals in pain will inadvertently bite the rescuers trying to care for them. If it appears that this may happen, either cover the animal’s head with a large blanket loosely or apply some form of muzzle. It is not worth two trips – one to the veterinary hospital and one to the human hospital.
By in large, what applies for a human emergency will apply as an animal emergency also. In my experience, it is best to remain as calm as possible and think logically. The unfortunate aspect of many emergencies is that they have an unfavorable outcome. Try not to think of this until it is confirmed, but be prepared for anything. If at any point you don’t understand what the veterinarian is saying, do not hesitate to ask about it or have it explained in a different way. The decisions and outcome of an emergency with your pet are all yours ultimately, and you and your pet will live with these decisions for the rest of your lives.
Walter Leigh (continued)
Wally's friend Tommy was designated to become a stoker. He never made it. He was killed at the Portsmouth Barracks in a single bomb attack while having a dental check. Wally was on a weekend pass at the time, unaware that his friend had been killed.
Wally remembered the day he tried his first cigarette. It's not surprising. A quirk of fate saved his life that day too.
He and others were in an air raid shelter on Whale Island. "The chap beside me was a Canadian," said Wally. Everyone was ordered out of the shelter because the pay office was on fire. Wally continued, "I left my tin hat behind and went back to get it. While I was on my way back a bomb was dropped on the pay office. When I got back I found the Canadian with a pile of bricks and mortar on him. The Canadian said not to worry. He only had pins and needles. There was another man beneath him. Those were the last words he said."
Wally certainly didn't suffer from any delusions of self importance, even in retrospect.
Remarking on his acceptance into the navy, he commented, "If you were warm, you were in." His uniform consisted of a hat and boots.
After training at Portsmouth, he was off to Whale Island for a gunnery course. He laughs that he once shot a seagull. He must have been good; he was kept on as an instructor.
But Wally was itching for action and "bored to tears". His application to join a seagoing ship was granted in 1940. He sailed out on the Corvette, Vetch, one of 145 Flower Class Corvettes built and designed for coastal escort service.
Part of the 36 Escort Group, the Vetch sailed the west coast of Africa, in some "fairly lively convoys" between Gibraltar, and Freetown, Sierra Leone. That's where Wally met with the four-engine German Focke-Wulf Fw 200s. The long-distance planes were used largely for reconnaissance, locating ships and radioing their location to U-boat wolf packs.
Two winter convoys to Newfoundland brought back strong memories to the former sailor.
Wally recalled in 2005 that the U-boats were secondary. The seas were massive and he remembers not seeing the other ships in the convoys for days.
On one of those sailings he saw a man in the sea and reached under the man's life jacket to pull him out. The lower half of his body was gone. That experience made the young sailor ill. Wally says the injuries were horrific, but the sailors got used to them to a certain extent.
There were no actual doctors on board, so men split open with severe injuries were pushed together and stitched up by those with first aid training and anyone who could help.
Ships seldom went to port to drop off individual sailors with injuries. Wally is alive today because that rule of thumb was broken for him.
The Vetch was on the way to Bone on the north coast of Africa and the convoy had survived a torpedo attack by eight bombers. It was getting dark and Wally, who was now a leading seaman, could hear the drone of a plane, so he stayed at his post after the attack. It wasn't long before the alarm bells were ringing. He could see the flames coming out of the engine of the incoming plane. They gave him a target. He followed his tracers to the plane. He was hitting it. The pilot fired up his cannons. One of his missiles hit the magazine next to Wally. Pieces glanced off it and pierced his body. He looked down and could see blood pumping out of his chest. He put his finger in to slow the flow, and went for medical help -- the designated sailor passed out.
Despite that, he survived the wound long enough to be transported to Bougie where a tent hospital was waiting for casualties. They were surprised when only one sailor was brought off the ship.
One of the nurses advised him it was a pity he was the only one -- they had lots of tea made.
Wally recounted the next event in the saga with a twinkle in his eye. The surgeon arrived at the operating room with a mallet over his shoulder and announced that they were out of anaesthetic, so he had to use the mallet. But, not to worry, "I'm pretty good at it. It usually takes only one blow."
After the operation the surgeon commented that, during peacetime, the operation would have cost 10,000 pounds. Wally got it free.
The repairs were made, but the shrapnel that sliced through his liver and lodged in his diaphragm remained, as did numerous other bits.
His daughter, Joan, would approach him as a child with a magnet and draw pieces to the surface of his skin where they would remove them.
For 12 weeks Wally convalesced, tended by nurses he had convoyed on an earlier trip.
It was during that convalescence that he learned about the wild habits of the Aussies.
On one occasion the recovering sailors went off to trade some tobacco for eggs which the nurses would boil in the sterilizers for breakfast. Wally was told to put some pebbles in the bottom of the tin of tobacco to deceive the farmer.
When the farmer discovered he'd been had, he came after the military men with a shotgun. They escaped but were court martialled and sent to another ward with an Australian.
That didn't last long.
While they were asleep a hyena ran through the tent. The Aussie heard it, picked up his gun lying beside him, and blasted away. It was clearly not safe.
DIEPPE
Prior to his North African experience, the 20-year-old sailor witnessed the massacre of Allied soldiers at Dieppe. It was August 19, 1942. Wally was aboard the Vetch doing anti-submarine duty off the coast.
More than 50 years later his voice rose in anger as he recalled men being blown to bits without the necessary air support to get them up the well-defended beach. He blamed the disaster on a dispute among the military leaders; he calls it "absolute murder."
The troops waited six weeks in England before they embarked. They knew where they were going -- and so did the Germans.
Wally's ship was able to pick up a half-dozen survivors in a half-sunk landing craft.
Distinction
Wally's fine eye with a pom- pom gun earned him a mention in dispatches surrounding the landing of troops in Sicily. Wally hit three successive planes.
He laughed when he recounted the story, "It was sheer luck; they must have steered into it".
He received a Royal Humane Society Scroll for his efforts saving another sailor.
On escort duty, a corvette was rammed by a trawler that turned the wrong way in the dark. The corvette sank and the sailors on the Vetch set about picking up the survivors.
One of them was swimming so close alongside the Vetch that he couldn't be seen. But Wally could hear him calling for his mother, or anyone.
Wally lowered himself down on ropes that hold the skiff, then let go and held on to the sailor. The ship rolled and Wally felt himself go down.
He chuckled again, telling the story "I felt something, and I knew that it wasn't the bottom, not way out here."
It was the bilge keel. Wally continued to hold on to the sailor, and pushed his way to the surface. He came out by the scrambling net on the side of the ship and climbed up. He got the man on board and they pumped him out. It disturbed Wally that the man accused him the next day of stealing his wallet. (The papers of all the rescued sailors had been removed from their pockets to dry out).
Wally was awarded the 1939 Star and stars for service in North Africa, and Italy. He was granted the Atlantic medal for his part in the Battle of the Atlantic, and the French and German medals for service to the King.
Married life
Wally nearly married his lifelong companion, Olive, in 1942. It was all planned. His ship was sent out on a four-day venture to pick up a convoy off Ireland. He phoned and had the arrangements made for his leave time. The ship was out of port for 90 days.
They tied the knot two years later on September 30, 1944, in the same church in Barking where Captain Cook had married. Wally noted with a smile that the dresses for the bridal party were now too small and the cake was stale.
When discussing where they would live, Wally told Olive once that they would go inland with a pair of oars over their shoulders. They'd settle in the town of the first person who asked what the oars were for.
The couple emigrated to Canada in 1989 and celebrated more than 55 years together, before Olive passed away in 2000.
The Murmansk Run
It was late 1944. The war was beginning to wind down, but Russia was desperate for supplies. Now sailing on the aircraft carrier Trumpeter, Wally embarked on two convoys on the deadly Murmansk Run.
His ship failed to make the first one. Facing high seas, the ship's flight deck "turned up just like a sardine can." They were sent back to Glasgow for repairs.
Conditions were brutal on that final run from Newfoundland to Murmansk.
The air raids never stopped ringing as they neared Europe. The convoys faced German attacks from Norwegian air bases. Half the convoy was lost on the late December voyage to the Arctic seaport.
The cold was brutal. Ships were advised not to pick up sailors off ships that had sunk in the waters. They would be dead first from hypothermia. Nonetheless, it still happened. Wally remembered that a few were saved. Most of them turned to blocks of ice the minute they were pulled from the icy waters. But they got a few on to the engine covers.
Captains were ordered not to stop for sinking ships. One in Wally's convoy did and it was torpedoed too.
Manning the guns in the bitter cold was almost impossible. Wally remembered men going down below for cocoa and it being frozen by the time they returned to the deck. Seas came right over the corvettes and froze. They used axes, steam hoses and hammers to break off the ice.
On the aircraft carriers, the decks were sheets of ice, making take off and landing treacherous. Manning the first gun station, Wally could see the colour drain out of the pilots' faces as they prepared to be catapulted off the deck. Those who came back would embark, rosy-cheeked, like they'd been out on a weekend jaunt.
Once in port at Murmansk, they were still not safe. U-boats patrolled under the ice, firing at the ships. The ships were frozen-in within hours of tying up. Thirty to 40 horses pulling sledges driven by women would arrive, unload the ship, then drive off over the ice. Days later icebreakers would ease them out of the harbour.
Conditions on shore in the Russian port were terrible. While awaiting the unloading, Wally was called to Arkhangelsk to testify at an inquiry. He witnessed people drinking watery potato soup out of big hoppers heated with logs.
While the images of the horrors of war still remained with him after over 60 years, it was the injustice that continued to irk the veteran.
When their convoy arrived in Russia, they found three Russian destroyers tied up at the dock. The Russians, to whom they had just delivered lifesaving supplies, refused to supply them with water.
Soon after their return to Britain, the announcement came : war had ended.
The Trumpeter was sent alone to Copenhagen to show the flag. Sailing in amongst German planes and U-Boats, the sailors were ordered to fire upon any ship that came within 1,000 yards. None did, and the Trumpeter docked.
It was there Wally experienced perhaps his final shock of the war.
Inside, a barbed wire encampment were women with shaved heads. Wally stopped to ask one why they were there.
The woman explained they had been accused of fraternizing with the Germans.
She added, "They may say what they like, but I have three children to feed."
Sixty years later, Wally lived in Cramahe Township with his daughter, Joan. At the time she was applying for a 60-year anniversary medal which the Russian government was producing to commemorate the Murmansk Run. He received the medal late in 2005.
His frankness provided us with a telling reminder of the dehumanizing personal experience and brutality of war. His life was proof that man can put behind him those horrors. It was a victory of the essential goodness of man.
Wally's friend Tommy was designated to become a stoker. He never made it. He was killed at the Portsmouth Barracks in a single bomb attack while having a dental check. Wally was on a weekend pass at the time, unaware that his friend had been killed.
Wally remembered the day he tried his first cigarette. It's not surprising. A quirk of fate saved his life that day too.
He and others were in an air raid shelter on Whale Island. "The chap beside me was a Canadian," said Wally. Everyone was ordered out of the shelter because the pay office was on fire. Wally continued, "I left my tin hat behind and went back to get it. While I was on my way back a bomb was dropped on the pay office. When I got back I found the Canadian with a pile of bricks and mortar on him. The Canadian said not to worry. He only had pins and needles. There was another man beneath him. Those were the last words he said."
Wally certainly didn't suffer from any delusions of self importance, even in retrospect.
Remarking on his acceptance into the navy, he commented, "If you were warm, you were in." His uniform consisted of a hat and boots.
After training at Portsmouth, he was off to Whale Island for a gunnery course. He laughs that he once shot a seagull. He must have been good; he was kept on as an instructor.
But Wally was itching for action and "bored to tears". His application to join a seagoing ship was granted in 1940. He sailed out on the Corvette, Vetch, one of 145 Flower Class Corvettes built and designed for coastal escort service.
Part of the 36 Escort Group, the Vetch sailed the west coast of Africa, in some "fairly lively convoys" between Gibraltar, and Freetown, Sierra Leone. That's where Wally met with the four-engine German Focke-Wulf Fw 200s. The long-distance planes were used largely for reconnaissance, locating ships and radioing their location to U-boat wolf packs.
Two winter convoys to Newfoundland brought back strong memories to the former sailor.
Wally recalled in 2005 that the U-boats were secondary. The seas were massive and he remembers not seeing the other ships in the convoys for days.
On one of those sailings he saw a man in the sea and reached under the man's life jacket to pull him out. The lower half of his body was gone. That experience made the young sailor ill. Wally says the injuries were horrific, but the sailors got used to them to a certain extent.
There were no actual doctors on board, so men split open with severe injuries were pushed together and stitched up by those with first aid training and anyone who could help.
Ships seldom went to port to drop off individual sailors with injuries. Wally is alive today because that rule of thumb was broken for him.
The Vetch was on the way to Bone on the north coast of Africa and the convoy had survived a torpedo attack by eight bombers. It was getting dark and Wally, who was now a leading seaman, could hear the drone of a plane, so he stayed at his post after the attack. It wasn't long before the alarm bells were ringing. He could see the flames coming out of the engine of the incoming plane. They gave him a target. He followed his tracers to the plane. He was hitting it. The pilot fired up his cannons. One of his missiles hit the magazine next to Wally. Pieces glanced off it and pierced his body. He looked down and could see blood pumping out of his chest. He put his finger in to slow the flow, and went for medical help -- the designated sailor passed out.
Despite that, he survived the wound long enough to be transported to Bougie where a tent hospital was waiting for casualties. They were surprised when only one sailor was brought off the ship.
One of the nurses advised him it was a pity he was the only one -- they had lots of tea made.
Wally recounted the next event in the saga with a twinkle in his eye. The surgeon arrived at the operating room with a mallet over his shoulder and announced that they were out of anaesthetic, so he had to use the mallet. But, not to worry, "I'm pretty good at it. It usually takes only one blow."
After the operation the surgeon commented that, during peacetime, the operation would have cost 10,000 pounds. Wally got it free.
The repairs were made, but the shrapnel that sliced through his liver and lodged in his diaphragm remained, as did numerous other bits.
His daughter, Joan, would approach him as a child with a magnet and draw pieces to the surface of his skin where they would remove them.
For 12 weeks Wally convalesced, tended by nurses he had convoyed on an earlier trip.
It was during that convalescence that he learned about the wild habits of the Aussies.
On one occasion the recovering sailors went off to trade some tobacco for eggs which the nurses would boil in the sterilizers for breakfast. Wally was told to put some pebbles in the bottom of the tin of tobacco to deceive the farmer.
When the farmer discovered he'd been had, he came after the military men with a shotgun. They escaped but were court martialled and sent to another ward with an Australian.
That didn't last long.
While they were asleep a hyena ran through the tent. The Aussie heard it, picked up his gun lying beside him, and blasted away. It was clearly not safe.
DIEPPE
Prior to his North African experience, the 20-year-old sailor witnessed the massacre of Allied soldiers at Dieppe. It was August 19, 1942. Wally was aboard the Vetch doing anti-submarine duty off the coast.
More than 50 years later his voice rose in anger as he recalled men being blown to bits without the necessary air support to get them up the well-defended beach. He blamed the disaster on a dispute among the military leaders; he calls it "absolute murder."
The troops waited six weeks in England before they embarked. They knew where they were going -- and so did the Germans.
Wally's ship was able to pick up a half-dozen survivors in a half-sunk landing craft.
Distinction
Wally's fine eye with a pom- pom gun earned him a mention in dispatches surrounding the landing of troops in Sicily. Wally hit three successive planes.
He laughed when he recounted the story, "It was sheer luck; they must have steered into it".
He received a Royal Humane Society Scroll for his efforts saving another sailor.
On escort duty, a corvette was rammed by a trawler that turned the wrong way in the dark. The corvette sank and the sailors on the Vetch set about picking up the survivors.
One of them was swimming so close alongside the Vetch that he couldn't be seen. But Wally could hear him calling for his mother, or anyone.
Wally lowered himself down on ropes that hold the skiff, then let go and held on to the sailor. The ship rolled and Wally felt himself go down.
He chuckled again, telling the story "I felt something, and I knew that it wasn't the bottom, not way out here."
It was the bilge keel. Wally continued to hold on to the sailor, and pushed his way to the surface. He came out by the scrambling net on the side of the ship and climbed up. He got the man on board and they pumped him out. It disturbed Wally that the man accused him the next day of stealing his wallet. (The papers of all the rescued sailors had been removed from their pockets to dry out).
Wally was awarded the 1939 Star and stars for service in North Africa, and Italy. He was granted the Atlantic medal for his part in the Battle of the Atlantic, and the French and German medals for service to the King.
Married life
Wally nearly married his lifelong companion, Olive, in 1942. It was all planned. His ship was sent out on a four-day venture to pick up a convoy off Ireland. He phoned and had the arrangements made for his leave time. The ship was out of port for 90 days.
They tied the knot two years later on September 30, 1944, in the same church in Barking where Captain Cook had married. Wally noted with a smile that the dresses for the bridal party were now too small and the cake was stale.
When discussing where they would live, Wally told Olive once that they would go inland with a pair of oars over their shoulders. They'd settle in the town of the first person who asked what the oars were for.
The couple emigrated to Canada in 1989 and celebrated more than 55 years together, before Olive passed away in 2000.
The Murmansk Run
It was late 1944. The war was beginning to wind down, but Russia was desperate for supplies. Now sailing on the aircraft carrier Trumpeter, Wally embarked on two convoys on the deadly Murmansk Run.
His ship failed to make the first one. Facing high seas, the ship's flight deck "turned up just like a sardine can." They were sent back to Glasgow for repairs.
Conditions were brutal on that final run from Newfoundland to Murmansk.
The air raids never stopped ringing as they neared Europe. The convoys faced German attacks from Norwegian air bases. Half the convoy was lost on the late December voyage to the Arctic seaport.
The cold was brutal. Ships were advised not to pick up sailors off ships that had sunk in the waters. They would be dead first from hypothermia. Nonetheless, it still happened. Wally remembered that a few were saved. Most of them turned to blocks of ice the minute they were pulled from the icy waters. But they got a few on to the engine covers.
Captains were ordered not to stop for sinking ships. One in Wally's convoy did and it was torpedoed too.
Manning the guns in the bitter cold was almost impossible. Wally remembered men going down below for cocoa and it being frozen by the time they returned to the deck. Seas came right over the corvettes and froze. They used axes, steam hoses and hammers to break off the ice.
On the aircraft carriers, the decks were sheets of ice, making take off and landing treacherous. Manning the first gun station, Wally could see the colour drain out of the pilots' faces as they prepared to be catapulted off the deck. Those who came back would embark, rosy-cheeked, like they'd been out on a weekend jaunt.
Once in port at Murmansk, they were still not safe. U-boats patrolled under the ice, firing at the ships. The ships were frozen-in within hours of tying up. Thirty to 40 horses pulling sledges driven by women would arrive, unload the ship, then drive off over the ice. Days later icebreakers would ease them out of the harbour.
Conditions on shore in the Russian port were terrible. While awaiting the unloading, Wally was called to Arkhangelsk to testify at an inquiry. He witnessed people drinking watery potato soup out of big hoppers heated with logs.
While the images of the horrors of war still remained with him after over 60 years, it was the injustice that continued to irk the veteran.
When their convoy arrived in Russia, they found three Russian destroyers tied up at the dock. The Russians, to whom they had just delivered lifesaving supplies, refused to supply them with water.
Soon after their return to Britain, the announcement came : war had ended.
The Trumpeter was sent alone to Copenhagen to show the flag. Sailing in amongst German planes and U-Boats, the sailors were ordered to fire upon any ship that came within 1,000 yards. None did, and the Trumpeter docked.
It was there Wally experienced perhaps his final shock of the war.
Inside, a barbed wire encampment were women with shaved heads. Wally stopped to ask one why they were there.
The woman explained they had been accused of fraternizing with the Germans.
She added, "They may say what they like, but I have three children to feed."
Sixty years later, Wally lived in Cramahe Township with his daughter, Joan. At the time she was applying for a 60-year anniversary medal which the Russian government was producing to commemorate the Murmansk Run. He received the medal late in 2005.
His frankness provided us with a telling reminder of the dehumanizing personal experience and brutality of war. His life was proof that man can put behind him those horrors. It was a victory of the essential goodness of man.
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